


The Susan Code 2: Where we belong

by LucyCrewe11 (Raphaela_Crowley)



Series: Susan is a Mermaid, Peter Is adopted (Because That's a Thing, Seventeen-year-old Me Decided) [6]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, H2O: Just Add Water
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Full Moon, Gen, Post-Book: The Last Battle (Narnia), Series Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 36,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27379882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raphaela_Crowley/pseuds/LucyCrewe11
Summary: The whole gang is back. Now with four Mermaids and the unexpected return of an old friend the secret may be even harder to keep. Mako Island itself may even be in danger. Will the mermaids and their friends FINALLY end up where they truly belong?Final part of the h2o/Narnia crossover series.
Relationships: Lewis McCartney/Cleo Sertori, Peter Pevensie/Susan Pevensie
Series: Susan is a Mermaid, Peter Is adopted (Because That's a Thing, Seventeen-year-old Me Decided) [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977607
Kudos: 1





	1. Hope and ringing phones

**Author's Note:**

> Written December of 2008.

Emma, Cleo, and Rikki sat in a booth at the Juice Net cafe talking in low tones about a very elegant school of fish they'd seen swimming by during their last underwater swim.

"Maybe we'll see them again today." Cleo said, taking a sip of her frozen juice strawberry blend drink.

"We should invite Susan to come with us." Emma suggested.

"Where is Susan anyway?" Rikki wondered aloud, looking at the clock on the wall near the entrance to the cafe. "She was supposed to be meeting us here."

Emma shrugged her shoulders. "I haven't seen her." She told them.

The moon pool at Mako Island is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Even when the moon isn't shinning over the top it still has a quiet 'talk in whispers' sort of awe about it until you get used to being surrounded by thick volcano-like rock and seeing it's reflection in a pool of water so clear and pure it seems unreal. It was in fact safer to be there when the full moon wasn't shinning over the top. That, it had been discovered, resulted in anyone in the pool becoming a mermaid every time they went into the water. It had started off as one of the best-kept secrets in the world but as more and more people began to discover it's magical wonders, there was always a chance that it's time standing alone was coming to an end.

There was no moon glittering over the pool now. Full or otherwise. Of course there wasn't, it was the middle of the day. And Susan Pevensie, the mermaid that Cleo Sertori, Emma Gillbert, and Rikki Chadwick were waiting for back at the Juice Net was swimming in it. Or rather she _had_ been swimming in it. Now swimming was the last thing on her mind. Peter had come into the cave from the land entrance and was smiling down at her.

Peter Burke-Pevensie was Susan's...well, it's sort of hard to explain. He was adopted by Susan's parents as a toddler because his own parents, Elise and Jacob Burke hadn't wanted him. He had been dead against anyone knowing about his adoption even keeping quiet about feelings he'd developed for Susan. Yet, sure enough, Susan had found out about his birth parents because of a box in the attic and brought it up. She also shared her own secret (That Mako Island had turned her into a mermaid) with him and the bond between the two of them became even stronger. They fell in love and wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. However, they had a fight right before the 1949 railway accident (The infamous one) and Peter had been killed in it. Or so she had thought. She lived in loneliness until old age claimed her and one day, after being kidnapped by an evil scientist, Peter came back and helped rescue her. Turns out he was never really dead at all but living in the country of the great Lion Aslan which happened to have different space and time than our world. He hadn't known he'd left her for so long. With the help of Aslan himself, Susan was restored to her former glory and Peter was able to pop the question. And the little diamond ring on her left hand was proof enough that he'd gotten the answer he'd wanted.

"Hello." Peter said softly, crouching by the side of the moon pool.

"Hello." Susan smiled back at him and leaned forward to kiss him.

While they were kissing, the sound of an angry rap song blasted through the cave.

"What in the world?" Susan mumbled pulling herself away from Peter and looking for the source of the interruption.

"Darn it." Peter muttered, reaching into the brown backpack Lewis had given him, trying to find his cell phone (Zane had paid for Peter and Susan to get cell phones so they could keep in touch with everyone). It was at moments like this that Peter hated technology. Sure a cell phone was useful but it also had the side effect of killing the mood when you were trying to be alone with the girl you were engaged to.

"You really should change that ringtone." Susan told him. "It's unbelievably annoying"

"I've tried to change it." Peter explained, looking at the caller ID. It said 'EMMA' in big letters. "I can't figure out how."

"Peter?" Emma's voice came through the phone.

"Yes?" He wasn't sure why it was suddenly on speakerphone.

"Have you seen Susan?" Emma asked him. "She was supposed to meet us twenty minutes ago."

"Oh no!" Susan slapped her forehead. "I completely forgot. Tell them I'm on my way." With a slight splash, a large ring of ripples and one strong flap of her tail, Susan was gone, zooming towards the mainland.

"She's on her way." Peter said told Emma.

Emma related this information to Cleo and Rikki.

"Bye, Peter." She said, snapping her cell phone shut.

Five minutes later, Susan rushed into the Juice Net trying to catch her breath. She walked over to the booth where her friends were sitting.

"There you are." Rikki said by way of greeting.

"Yes, I'm so sorry I'm late." Susan apologized.

"With lover boy again were we?" Rikki teased.

Susan folded her arms across her chest. "For about half a second before the phone rang."

"Sorry." Cleo laughed a little. "The same thing always happens to me and Lewis."

"One time Zane was trying to act like he was in the middle of an important phone call, I guess to impress me or something and the phone rang." Ricky told them, knowing this story was sure to win at least a mild laugh.

"I've got one better." Emma said, taking the straw from her smoothie out of her mouth so she could tell them the story. "One time, Ash and I were making out and his _mother_ called on the cell phone to ask if he buy milk and eggs on his way home."

Susan and Cleo exchanged confused glances, not really getting the humor of Emma's story.

Rikki rolled her eyes. "That's better than mine _how_?"

Emma shrugged. "I guess you had to be there."

"Why is that old lady staring at us?" Cleo asked suddenly as she noticed an old woman with white-blond hair and bright blue eyes looking at them from her table.

"Maybe she thinks you look funny." Susan joked. Using Lucy's jokes made her feel closer to her family. Yes, having Peter back was wonderful and more than she could have ever hoped for but she still missed her parents, Edmund, and Lucy terribly."

Peter walked in and kissed Susan on the forehead as they scooted over to make some room for him at the booth.

The old woman was looking at them even more intently now. She shook her head a little as though she thought she must be mistaken, and looked away. Then she looked back and stared some more.

"Doesn't that old woman look an awful lot like Edmund's girlfriend?" Peter whisper-asked Susan.

Susan glanced over at the woman again. "She does look quite a bit like Julia Dove. And she's the right age too."

"But she's dead." Rikki protested, touching the locket that hung from her neck. "The man at the store said that the owner had died."

Peter squinted at the necklace, noticing it for the first time. "Hey, that's the one Julia gave to Edmund before she left!"

"Wait..." Emma was starting to understand the situation. "That would mean that..."

"The deceased estate was Edmund's and Julia's still alive!" Cleo gasped.

"Great Scott!" Peter exclaimed.

"Come on." Susan grabbed his hand and pulled him to Julia's table. "The least we can do is say hello."

The old woman (Julia) looked more than a little startled to see them all coming towards her now. She knew she shouldn't have stared so long at them. They probably thought she was a stalker or something.

"Hi Julia." Peter said as causally as he could manage.

Her eyes widened. "How do you know my name?"

"Julia, it's us!" Susan exclaimed happily. "Susan and Peter Pevensie."

"I thought you looked familar...but how..." If it really was them, they should have been at least as old as she was, older actually.

"It's a bit of a long story." Peter chuckled.

Rikki came over feeling very strange standing in front of the former owner of her locket.

"My locket!" Julia smiled. "I always wondered what became of it after Edmund..." Her voice trailed off and the smile faded.

"Julia, we know why you didn't come back." Susan said kindly.

"You do?" She gasped. "How?"

Susan smiled at Rikki, Emma, and Cleo. "We'll show you."

They led Julia down to the beach and looked around to be sure no one was watching. Then on the count of three, the four mermaids leaped into the water, their golden-orange tails appearing instantly.

Julia couldn't believe it. She hadn't felt so excited in years.

After they'd dried off they all sat on the rocky sand watching the waves, explaining Narnia and Aslan (Including the part about Julia's former boyfriend Edmund being a king). They tried to gloss over the part about him betraying them for Turkish delight the best they could. Peter claimed it was mostly his fault anyway for being so hard on him. Susan claimed that she held part of the blame as well.

Not that it mattered, the fact that Edmund was a traitor who had mended and become a great leader only made Julia's eyes shine all the brighter as she listened. She didn't say they were crazy or that she didn't believe a word of it, she really listened and really believed everything they told her.

"So you mean to say, Edmund is still alive in Aslan's Country?" Julia asked in a hopeful tone. It seemed to good to be true. She'd come to terms with his death a long time ago but the thought that he wasn't gone after all made her heart ache in a way she couldn't quite understand.

Peter nodded. "He's doing just fine." He assured her.

"I wish I could get into Aslan's country." Julia murmured softly, more to herself than to the others. "I'd give anything to see him again."

Emma had an idea. "Do you think when you find a way back in, you could bring her with you?" She asked Susan and Peter.

"I don't know." Peter said. "We haven't a chance of getting her in there against Aslan's will if that's the case. But it would be nice if she could come. Edmund would be overjoyed."

"You mean, he hasn't...forgotten me?" Julia wanted to know.

"Are you kidding?" Susan laughed a little as she spoke. "He never stopped talking about you. He waited two years for you to come back."

"I wish I had come back when I had the chance." Julia sighed regretfully. "It's too late now"

"Maybe it'll all turn out alright in the end." Susan said comfortingly. "I mean, look at me and Peter." She reached out and grabbed his hand. "I'd lost all hope. I never dreamed I'd get him back someday."

"Maybe there is hope." Julia agreed. "Maybe there is."


	2. Mako Island in danger

"Rikki, could you check to see if the clothes on the line are dry yet?" Mr. Chadwick's voice called out to his daughter.

"Sure thing, Dad." Rikki answered, picking up the laundry basket, and walking out back to check. As she reached out to touch a pair of slightly damp jeans, her cell phone rang.

She dropped the basket on the ground and checked the caller ID. It said, 'ZANE'. Rikki rolled her eyes. She was sort of mad at him because he had promised to come by earlier and hadn't. He was probably calling with some lame excuse. She came close to hitting 'Ignore incoming call' but changed her mind at the last second.

"Hey." Rikki said in a flat we-aren't-on-great-terms-right-now-so-don't-try-to-pretend-we-are-or-else tone.

"Rikki, I've got some really bad news." Zane's voice sounded weary, not apologetic or even its usual tone of 'extremely smug'.

For a moment, Rikki forgot she was mad at him. "What's wrong?"

"My dad's trying to develop Mako Island again." Zane told her.

"What?" Rikki cried in horror. "He can't do that! What about the environment protection people?"

"They can't do anything." Zane said gravely.

"Why not?" Rikki demanded.

"Because." Zane told her. "My dad just brought the whole island. They said his offer was too high to refuse."

"What? No!" Rikki shouted. This wasn't happening. This had to be a dream. A nightmare. And she was just about to wake up. She pinched herself. She felt it. This was really happening and there was nothing she could do about it.

Peter was sitting on the beach, looking out at the ocean, remembering the beach-front view from his old Narnian castle, Cair Paravel. He was thinking about the first time he'd really looked out at that view. It had been after he discovered something about himself that he hadn't wanted to admit.

He had just been crowned High King Peter of Narnia and all the Narnians were happily celebrating this (After all, even a school boy with a sword is a better ruler than an evil witch with a wand and a fondness for never-ending winters) with a grand feast/ball in the main throne room. The windows had been wide open and you could hear the mermaids singing songs of victory and joy. Edmund and Lucy had been wildly dancing about in the mist of all the creatures present. Susan had been slower and more graceful in her moves than her siblings aimed to be. She spun around on the tips of her toes like a well trained ballerina.

Unfortunately, a fumble-footed faun who could just barely dance didn't watch were he was leaping and banged into Susan who was in mid-spin. She went flying across the room (Spinning much faster than she meant to) right into the high king's arms.

And that was how it had all started for Peter. After she'd banged into him, glad that she had avoided a near collision with a marble pillar, they'd danced together. He didn't know exactly how it had happened but he knew that somehow he'd fallen in love with her during the course of that dance.

That first night at Cair Paravel, he had stared hopelessly out at the sea, knowing that he'd fallen in love with someone whom he thought he had no chance with. She hadn't even known his secret about being a Burke. He hadn't wanted her to. He'd thought he'd rather die than admit that to anyone.

He sometimes wondered if Aslan somehow knew but never gathered enough courage to ask him, preferring to go with the ignore-it-and-it-will-go-away philosophy. But his feelings didn't go away. If anything they'd only gotten stronger. Not only was she still his dear wonderful Su whom he adored but she proceeded to grow up into a remarkably beautiful woman. Which sadly meant that every other male visitor to the castle had a habit of falling in love with her and begging for her hand in marriage, some having to be dragged forcibly out of the castle kicking, screaming, crying, and cursing everyone from his beloved pet dog to his own mother.

At first Peter hadn't worried about her getting married to some royal suitor, figuring that she wouldn't find any worthy of her and would go on being single. That was why when she first seriously started courting he began to loathe every suitor who arrived. If he was vile, Peter hated him. If he was a good person, Peter hated him even more seeing him as a threat. He wanted Susan to be happy but seeing her with those men killed him inside. Edmund and Lucy used to wonder why Peter was so irritable whenever someone asked for her hand in marriage.

Many times he'd wondered what would happen if he fell at her feet and declared his love for her. None of the outcomes he could picture in his mind were good ones. She always looked utterly disgusted and vowed never to speak to him again. Or worse, laughed. Laughed like it was some sort of joke.

On the day they'd gone hunting the white stag, Susan told him that she was strongly considering marrying a prince from a country north of Narnia. He was a reasonably kind man and she was nearly thirty then and didn't want to be an old maid queen.

"But you'll have us, Su." Peter had said rather pathetically. "Edmund, Lucy, and Me. What do you need a husband for?"

She had looked at him as though he was insane. "It's not the same thing, Peter." She'd told him rather harshly, clearly expecting a different reaction out of her older brother than the one she'd gotten.

That night they hadn't come back to Cair Paravel but found themselves children again in Professor Kirke's house. Although he mourned the loss of Narnia, Peter secretly had a smile of relief on his face.

It was strange to think about how far they'd come since then. Peter couldn't believe that she'd ended up falling in love with him after discovering his secret. He'd never dreamed in a million years of that happening. Then losing her again because of her losing faith in Narnia and Aslan had been almost unbearably painful and yet, they'd finally overcome that as well. They had a new life, new friends, and had nothing left to do but to wait for Aslan to let them back into his country.

And there was Susan now, swimming towards him her long golden tail trailing behind her. He still remembered the first time he had seen it. When she'd poured that glass of water over herself to show him. If he hadn't truly loved her, the fish tail might have been enough to snap him out of his infatuation. But if anything, he loved her all the more for having that tail. Because with or without the tail, she was still Susan. She was still that sweet little baby mum had brought into the world, the one grandma Pevensie thought was regal enough to marry a king (Funny how she actually _was_ engaged to a king now). She was still the little girl who'd kept him company during his school holidays. And she was still the beautiful woman he'd fallen for back in Narnia.

Susan dried off, walked over to him and took a seat beside him.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

He smiled at her. "You."

She gave him a playful shove. "No, really."

"Honest." Peter told her, taking her hand in his while she leaned on his shoulder. "I was thinking about when I first fell in love with you back in Narnia."

"It's too bad I didn't know." Susan said softly. "I can't believe I wasted all that time on those suitors when I clearly belonged with you."

"I was your brother then." Peter reminded her. "I wasn't Peter Burke-Pevensie. I was just, Peter Pevensie."

"Well whomever you are, we're together now." Susan said happily.

"I know." Peter's smile widened. "Isn't it great?"

"And no more denial." Susan sighed. "I have to believe in Aslan now."

"And no more of those awful parties." Peter shuddered at the memory.

"Gosh." Laughed Susan. "I haven't thought about those in years."

"At least you don't remember any of those idiots you flirted with right in front of me." Peter teased.

"Sorry about that." Susan told him, lifting her head off his shoulder to give him a sweet-pleading look. "Forgive me?"

"Of course." Peter leaned forward and kissed her.

As if on cue, the angry rap music ringtone started.

"By the lion!" Exclaimed Peter, pulling away from her and trying to find his phone. "I think I want to hurl this thing into the ocean."

"Peter, I'm begging you to change that ring tone. I swear, if that becomes our song, I'll never forgive you." Susan joked.

"I told you." Peter joke-huffed, finally finding the phone. "I don't know how."

The caller ID. said, 'RIKKI'.

"Did you forget to meet them again?" Peter asked as before-voice-static filled the speaker phone.

"No." Susan didn't remember making any plans with them for today.

"Peter, is Susan with you?" Rikki asked in an anxious voice.

"Yes, but why didn't you just call her cell?" Peter snapped, wondering how he had been mistaken for Susan Pevensie's answering machine.

"I don't have it with me." Susan whispered.

"Oh." Peter shrugged and tuned back into the phone conversation with Rikki. "What's wrong?" Something had to be wrong, he'd just snapped and Rikki and she hadn't given him a sarcastic retort.

"Zane'sDad'sgonnaruinMakoIsland!" Rikki bawled into the phone.

"Wait, what?" Susan gasped. She didn't quite get all of what Rikki was saying but she did hear, 'Zane' and 'Mako Island'. That didn't sound good at all.

Rikki repeated it, slower this time.

"No!" Susan cried. "What about the moon pool?"

"I don't know." Rikki told her. "I can't believe the environment protection people just bailed on us like that!"

"But what's going to happen if they find out what the moon pool can do?" Peter wondered aloud. "The secret could get out."

"It's worse than that!" Rikki's voice shouted into the phone. "Zane's dad already knows about the pool. Remember?"

"That's right!" Susan said miserably. "Cleo told me what he and Dr. Denman tried to do to her, you, and Emma."

"Wait, that doesn't mean he understands everything about the pool." Peter reminded them. "It's not like he knows exactly how you all became mermaids."

"And he is under the impression that you gave it all up." Susan pointed out.

"True." Rikki said, still understandably unnerved. "Look, I just called Cleo, we're all meeting at her house in fifteen minutes." She paused for a moment before adding. "That means you too, Peter."

Mr. Sertori head a knock at the front door. He started for the door only to hear Cleo call, "It's for me, I'll get it dad."

"You were expecting someone?" Mr. Sertori seemed surprised.

"Lewis, right?" Kim said smugly, coming in from the kitchen. "Your _boyfriend._ " She said 'boyfriend' the say way most people say 'green snot' and 'dog poo'.

"Is it just me or has that boy been over here a lot lately?" Mr. Setori commented.

"It's not Lewis." Cleo told them. "Lewis is away with his family for the weekend, he's not coming back until tomorrow."

"Well maybe he came back early." Kim guessed, standing on her tip-toes looking throw the clear part of the glass front door instead of getting out of the way so Cleo could open it. "I see a blond boy's head."

"That's Peter." Cleo corrected her, nudging her way over to the door and opening it.

"Who the heck is Peter?" Mr. Sertori seemed very confused.

The door opened. Peter walked in.

"Hi, I don't believe we've met." Mr. Sertori reached out to shake their hands.

"Oh, I guess we haven't." Peter realized. "I'm Peter, I'm a friend of Cleo's."

"I'm Kim, Cleo's _mature_ younger sister." Kim jumped in front of her dad to shake Peter's hand first, tucking a peace of her hair behind her ears and beaming up at him.

There was another knock at the door. Susan, Emma, and Ash were there. (Susan had met up with Ash and Emma for a ride, thus the reason she hadn't been at the door with Peter).

"Hello, Emma. Hello, Ash." Mr. Sertori already knew them, he turned to Susan. "And you are?"

"This is Susan, she's engaged to Peter." Cleo jumped in, giving her sister a dirty look which very clearly said, 'now will you please stop trying to flirt with him? You're embarrassing me!'.

"Really?" Mr. Sertori wasn't as tense if the guy hanging around his teenage daughter was unavailable. He instantly became more friendly towards Peter.

"Yes." Susan lifted her hand and showed him the ring on her finger.

"How old are you anyway?" Mr. Sertori asked. At first he'd thought they were teenagers but then they seemed a little older. And they were engaged. They seemed, odd as it was, to have no real fixed age at all and yet, it was somehow perfectly natural.

"Um..." Peter tried to come up with an answer. "Somewhere over 1500?"

"Funny." Mr. Sertori chuckled. He turned to his daughter. "I like him." He mouthed.

The door bell rang. Emma opened the door, Miss Chatham and Max Hamilton walked in.

"Oh, hello." Mr. Sertori was more than a little surprised to see them. "I didn't know you were coming."

"Neither did I." Miss Chatham told him. "Until a little while ago."

 _knock knock._ William Burke stood at the door.

"Oh that's my cousin." Peter said causally.

The old man at the door smiled at them (He was missing a few teeth) as he entered.

"Big age difference huh?" Kim commented.

Next came Rikki and Zane.

"Um, I thought your dad and sister weren't home." Rikki said as she entered.

"Sorry." Cleo mouthed. Her dad had come home early and Kim's shopping trip with their mother had been cancelled less than two minutes ago.

"Maybe we should have done this at Emma's." Zane groaned.

"Done what?" Mr. Setori asked.

"School project." Cleo came up with.

"Yes, it's worth a big part of our grade so we'd best get started up in Cleo's room." Emma added, eyeing the staircase.

"But Miss Chatham, Max, and Peter's cousin aren't your classmates..." Mr. Sertori said, rubbing his forehead as he spoke. "And are Peter and Susan even in your grade?"

"No, no, of course not..." Ash tried to come up with something. "They um...are...we need them for..."

"Interviews!" Zane cut in.

Everyone nodded in agreement as if this had been their plan all along.

"But I think we'd better all go to Emma's house anyway because she has more..." Rikki tried to come up with a good reason for going to Emma's.

"Stuff!" Ash blurted out.

"School stuff." Zane added.

"Let's work out a car pool." Peter suggested.

And they were out of the house before Kim and Mr. Sertori could figure out just what was going on.

No one talked the whole ride over to Emma's house. They couldn't stop thinking about that pool on Mako Island. Or Zane's jerk of a father. Or the fact that the next full moon was only in two short days and they were in no way prepared for it.


	3. Whatever lies ahead

Peter, Susan, Emma, Cleo, Rikki, Ash, Zane, William, Miss Chatham, and Max sat in Emma's room talking about Mako Island. None of them could come up with any solution to the problem now at hand.

"Couldn't we perhaps...I don't know...humor your father for a while and them somehow trick him...into..." Peter was talking to Zane who was shaking his head no. "Oh, hang it all!"

"You don't know him, he's not going to listen to us." Zane said, looking over at Rikki wondering if she had a plan. After all, it was her who'd come up with something the last time Zane's father had tried something like this.

"If the environment protection people wont help us maybe we could appeal to the tourist committee." Emma suggested. "Mako Island's beauty does bring in a lot of tourists."

"Yes, but if Zane's father develops the place, it's likely to bring in more people, not less. So the tourist committee would be on his side." Max pointed out sadly, shaking his head in dismay. "I can't believe this is really happening. I still remembering the fishing there while the girls swam..." his old eyes filled with tears and Miss Chatham, who remembered those days very well herself, handed him a tissue.

"I wonder what will become of the mermaids if they still feel the pull of Mako during the full moon after Harrison Bennett messes with the place." William shuddered at the thought. From what he had heard from Susan about the full moon, the results could be disastrous.

"When is he going to start?" Susan wanted to know.

"He said in two weeks." Zane moaned, putting his hand to his forehead.

"At least it's after the full moon." Cleo said, trying to be cheerful.

Miss Chatham didn't look any less worried. "After this full moon, yes. It's the others afterwards that worry me."

"I don't know if this is the best time to bring it up, but from studying the full moon cycles, I have a feeling that there may be something special about this upcoming full moon." Max told them. "I was going to wait until Lewis came back tomorrow to bring up to all of you but I thought maybe I should let you all know now."

"But Max," Miss Chatham said. "The fifty year full moon has already passed. Isn't that the most powerful one?"

"Isn't that why Charlotte tried to lure us there?" Cleo felt angry just thinking about Charlotte Watsford, that traitor!

"That's what I thought but this upcoming one may be even stronger." Max said in a very serious tone that gave everyone in the room the shivers. "You could all be in danger."

"We wont let anything happen to them." Ash said firmly. "Even if we have to lock them up all night."

"I once tried to lock up Gracie, Louise, and Julia after they been moonstruck. I couldn't keep them safe." Max said gravely.

"Lewis has tried his best to keep us from getting moonstruck in the past." Cleo added, pulling her legs up onto the beanbag chair she was seated on.

"And failed." Rikki chimed in as if that was supposed to be helpful.

"Rikki!" Emma snapped, glaring at her friend.

"Well it's true." Rikki defended herself.

"What are we going to do?" Cleo asked feeling like she might throw up. A extra powerful full moon in only two days on top of the fact that Zane's father was trying to ruin Mako had that effect on her stomach.

"I don't know." Emma moaned.

"We'll protect you." Ash promised, slipping his arm around Emma's shoulder. "All of us."

"He's right." Peter told them. "before when there was only Lewis or Max trying to help three mermaids or just me trying to protect Su, it was nearly impossible, but if we all work together, we can keep them safe."

Susan felt extremely proud of him. "Well said, Peter."

"As for Mako, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it." Peter sighed.

"That's gonna be one heck of a bridge." Zane said grimly.

 _Ding-dong_ The door bell rang.

"Who could that be?" Ash wondered aloud.

"Elliot?" Zane suggested.

"Why would Elliot ring the door bell at his own house?" Rikki pointed out.

"I'll go see who it is." Emma opened the door, walked out of the room, and started for the staircase.

Once she was down stairs, she opened the door. It was Julia. She looked a little tired and worn out. She was dressed in old-lady scrubs and jogging shoes. As there wasn't a car in sight, she had probably walked all the way there from where ever she was staying.

"Hello, Emma." She said trying to smile though she wasn't terribly expressive by nature. She was a lot like Rikki in that sense (And in quite a few others too).

"Hi." Emma said politely hoping she didn't sound too awkward. "Come in, would you like something to drink?" She walked over to the cabinet where the glasses were kept.

"Yes, thank you very much." Julia said gratefully. "I hope you don't mind my coming on such short notice, I got you're address out of the phone book, it was listed under your number."

"No, I don't mind." Emma told her kindly.

"Is it only you, here?" Julia asked. "I was hoping to speak with Peter and Susan again."

"Oh, they're right upstairs." Emma went to the staircase. "Peter, Susan, Julia's here."

Susan, Peter, and Miss Chatham came downstairs.

"Louise!" Gasped Julia, putting her hand to her heart. "It's been years!"

Louise ran to her friend and hugged her tightly. They'd had fights in the past but it was all over now. "Oh Julia, I thought you had died after Rikki came across your locket."

"But you knew I gave it to Edmund." Julia reminded her teary-eyed friend.

"I'd forgotten." Louise admitted, letting her old friend go at last.

"That's alright." Julia's smile was genuine now.

"Hi, Julia." Rikki said as she strolled down the stairs and over to the couch where Julia and Louise were sitting.

Max came down and smiled at Julia.

"Long time no see." She said in a friendly tone.

"Good to see you too." Max told her. "I'm glad you're still alive."

"I'm rather pleased by that myself." Julia said rather dryly but her tone remained friendly.

"I guess the only one of us who's really gone is Gracie." Louise sighed. "Poor dear."

"My Gracie." Max whispered to himself.

"Max," Peter asked looking as though he was thing hard about something. "What did your Gracie look like?"

"Beautiful." Max said softly. "Sort of like Susan but with a very different character in the face. Thinner cheeks and lips."

"Long black hair?" Peter asked him.

"Yes." Max told him.

"Hmm." Peter mumbled, that deep-thinking look still on his face.

"Why do you ask?" Max wanted to know.

"No reason." Peter shrugged. "I just thought...well, never mind."

"She's in the picture inside the locket I gave to Emma." Miss Chatham reminded them.

Emma opened the locket and showed it to Peter.

"She seems familiar." Peter told them. "I think I knew her from somewhere."

"Maybe in the photographs I showed you?" Julia suggested.

"Maybe, but I think I've seen her in person before too." Peter said trying to remember. "But not up close, from a distance."

"Strange." Julia said, taking the glass of Juice that Emma was holding out for her.

Ever since he'd come back, saved Susan, and gotten engaged, Peter had been living with Max. Susan was still living in that run down dump she'd rented but it wasn't as likely to collapse on her as it used to because Zane had paid to have it fixed up a little. And to get a new heater that actually turned on. Every night at exactly ten o' clock, Peter called her to say goodnight.

Her cell phone's ring-tone was actually a ring. She wondered if she was the only person who still thought ringing was a sufficient alert and that trendy new songs-like the musical doorbells that some of the richer neighbors had brought when she was growing up-did more to annoy you than let you know someone wanted to talk.

"Hi." Susan said into the phone as she answered it.

"Hi." Peter's voice came in through the other end.

"Calling to say goodnight?" Susan asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Do I ever not?" Peter asked gently.

"Hey, I was wondering something." Susan told him.

"What's on your mind?"

"When you said you thought you knew Gracie from somewhere, where did you mean?"

Peter looked over his shoulder to make sure Max wasn't listening. "I think she's in Aslan's country. Remember I told you that in that country your eyes can see things from far, far away? Well I think I saw-I'm not sure though-but I think...I think it may have been her."

"But in order for that to be true, she'd have had to be taken away shortly before her death by Aslan, just like you, Lu, and Ed were." Susan said in a tone of wonder.

"I don't know if it was really her, that's why I didn't tell Max." Peter explained. "I didn't want to get his hopes up. It's bad enough seeing Julia an old woman like that, missing Edmund as much as she does...it's horrible."

"I know what you mean." Susan agreed. "I hate seeing William old and stiff. I still see him in my mind as the boy from the subway station who called me 'Phyllis'. Seeing him like that is...there's no words for it really."

"And it's so odd, being young in this world when we were clearly meant to either be old or not be here at all." Peter said rather sadly. "I do hope we make it to Aslan's country soon. You'll love it. It's even more wonderful than Narnia was."

"I will miss our friends here though." Susan sighed, thinking of the three mermaids she shared a close friendship with, their boyfriends who were so kind to her, William, Max and Louise-and now, Julia. She loved them all like family but she yearned to see her real family Edmund, Lucy, and her parents again. She wondered which world it was she really belonged in.

"I'll miss them too." Peter said. "And I do wonder what's going to become of everyone now, what with Mako Island in danger and all that..."

"I wish Aslan could come roaring in and save us all just like in Narnia." Susan confessed. "I wish it all the time."

"So I do." Peter whispered. "But that isn't his way in our world I guess."

"No, I guess not." Susan agreed.

"Well, goodnight Su." Peter said tenderly as he prepared to end the call. "See you tomorrow."

"See you then." Susan responded. "Goodnight."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"Bye." He hung up.

"Bye." She hung up and pulled a wool blanket over her shoulders feeling a little chilly all of a sudden.

Meanwhile, out watching the rough nighttime waves of the sea hit the rocky part of the coastline, stood Miss Chatham. She was all alone, of course she was used to it but every once in a while she longed for what it seemed all of her friends had or had had at least once in their lives. Love. Romantic love. She had never felt it. Only seen it.

First in Gracie's love for Max. Then in Julia's infatuation with Carl before she found Edmund. She saw it in Cleo and Lewis now. It was clearly starting between Emma and Ash, if they weren't already in love, that's where they were headed. It was even blooming in surprising places, such as that between Zane and Rikki. Zane, when Miss Chatham had first met him was a spoiled jerk who let a girl follow him about whenever it suited him, then dumped her when he got sick of her company. And yet, whether it was because he feared his dad's anger a little less now that he was older, or if it was Rikki herself and her wild ways that had changed him, he had turned out alright and was in a good relationship for the first time in his life.

As for Miss Chatham, she wondered deep down what it would be like to have someone care for her. Of course, she was too old now. Any chance of finding someone had long passed for her. No man would look at her now. She was old. Not to mention a bit senile.

"Louise?" An old voice that sounded almost like Max's but with a British accent called.

She turned around to see Peter's cousin, William Burke, standing there on the rocks only a little distance from her look-out place, waving to her.

"Hello, William." She said called back. "What are you doing out here?"

William walked over to her so he didn't have to shout at the top of his lungs anymore. They were old and hoarse and couldn't take that kind of strain these days.

"Oh, I just like to come out here sometimes on nights when it's not too dark-I do hate the dark-to watch the waves." William explained. "Back when I first got that job at Dr. Denman's lab coming out here on bright nights was the only time I was ever happy."

"It is beautiful." Louise said softly, gazing out at the sea, remembering her younger mermaids years. Part of her wished she hadn't given it up. When she watched Susan, Cleo, Emma, and Rikki disappear in the waves off to the moon pool sometimes from her quiet unnoticed place by the pier, she missed being a mermaid. Of course getting it back now wouldn't do any good even if it was possible. It wasn't the same without Julia and Gracie.

"I actually wish it was dark tonight." Said William in a gloomy voice. "Although I'd have to miss this, the full moon wouldn't be coming so soon and what Max said...well, you heard it, what do you think?"

"I don't know what to think anymore, William." Sighed Miss Chatham. "I just don't. I've been the voice of reason since I was fourteen and now I think I'm getting to old even for that."

"You aren't that old." William reminded her. "You're at least a few years younger than I am. And I'm not old at all."

"Aren't you?" Louise asked with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

"I haven't felt old since I helped break Phyllis out of that lab." He said looking quite pleased. "I thought if I could have a hand it doing that, I couldn't be that old and useless after all."

Louise smiled at him. "Old is more than just a frame of mind."

"Yeah," William agreed, smiling back at her. "That's the only part I don't like."

"By the way..." Louise asked looking a little confused. "Who's Phyllis?"


	4. Full moon TV

Susan, Cleo, Rikki, and Emma sat at one of the booths at the Juice Net across from Lewis who had his open laptop in front of him.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" Emma asked as Lewis took a noisy slurp from the soft drink on the table.

"What we need is a way to keep everyone together." Lewis decided, setting the drink down beside him.

"Thanks that was really helpful." Rikki snapped sarcastically.

"I wasn't finished yet." Lewis defended himself. "I was thinking that if it's alright with Susan, we should all stay at her house tonight."

"It's fine with me but I don't know if everyone will fit." Susan said doubtfully. It was an extremely small house after all.

"Well what if we all hang out at Cleo's?" Lewis suggested.

Cleo shook her head. "My dad will be there and Kim too."

"Em?" He looked over at Emma hopefully.

"Parents and Elliot, both going to be at home." Emma sighed, making it clear that they couldn't stay there either.

"What about your house, Lewis?" Cleo asked.

"My parents will be there." Lewis shrugged.

"Maybe we could all stay at Zane's place until this full moon thing blows over." Rikki suggested.

"Rikki, are you insane?" Emma demanded, looking at her as though she'd lost her mind. "We can't be at Harrison Bennett's house on a full moon. I don't even want to think about what could go wrong."

"I have an idea." Susan told them, pulling out her cell phone and calling Peter.

"Su?" His voice came in through the speaker phone.

"Peter, do you think we could stay over at Max's house tonight?" Susan asked him.

"Hold on, he's right here, I'll ask him." Peter put his hand over the mouth piece of the phone and asked Max it that was alright. "He says it's alright with him."

"Great." Susan breathed a sigh of relief. At least that was settled. "'Tell him thanks from all of us."

"I will." Peter assured her.

"Love you, Bye." Susan said.

"Love you too." Peter said. "bye."

"You still there?" Susan could still hear his breathing on the other end of the line. "I thought you'd hung up."

"I'd thought this was your turn to hang up first." Peter answered.

" _You_ hang up first." Susan told him.

"No, you."

"No, you."

"Alright on the count of three." Peter said.

"Three!" Rikki rolled her eyes, grabbed the phone out of Susan's hand, and hung up.

"Rikki!" Susan protested, shooting her friend a pleading look.

"Come on, you and lover boy can make up later." Rikki tried to get her focused on the situation at hand still at hand. "We still need to think of an excuse for going over to Max's house tonight."

"Bugs?" Lewis randomly came up with.

"Bugs?" Rikki wrinkled her nose. "What kind of stupid excuse is that?"

'"It was the first thing that came to mind." Lewis grumped.

"Alright, well I don't like to encourage telling lies but..." Susan sighed, shaking her head at the thought she was about to share with the group. "Maybe you should tell them that you're all sleeping over each other's houses."

"Yeah, I could tell my dad I'm sleeping over at Emma's." Rikki said, warming up to the idea. "He never calls in to check."

"I could tell my dad I'm at Emma's and she could tell her parents she's at my house." Cleo suggested.

"But my parents will call to check up." Emma reminded her. "They always do."

"Tell them to call you on your cell." Rikki told her. "That way, even though you'll be at Max's not Cleo's they won't know the difference."

"I hate lying to them." Emma moaned.

"I know, I hated lying to my parents too." Susan said, remembering the days of cover ups and pretending like she suddenly hated swimming. "But I couldn't bring myself to tell them that I was a mermaid."

"Alright, so it's all worked out." Lewis said, moving the laptop to show the girls the screen. "The moon rises at exactly seven tonight and sets at six in the morning."

"So if we're all at Max's by six thirty we should be fine." Cleo said trying to calm her nerves. "I can't stop thinking about all the weird things that could happen to us if anything goes wrong."

"Nothing will go wrong." Rikki tried to reassure her friend. "This time we're completely out numbered we can't go crazy with that many people to help us."

"That's what I'm worried about." Susan said softly. "What if we do something to them, after we get hit by the full moon?"

"Look, there's no point in stressing like this now." Rikki said firmly. "The moon is going to rise and there's nothing we can do about it."

"Rikki's right, guys." Emma said, nodding at her friend. "We just have to take tonight as it comes."

Charlotte Watsford was sitting at home out by the pool, doing her homework on one of the lounge chairs with her notebooks propped against her legs when her phone rang. She reached over and picked it up, wondering who it could be.

Deep down she hoped it was Lewis but she knew that was impossible. After all, he'd dumped her for Cleo and had made it perfectly clear that he no longer wanted anything to do with her. She'd thought but getting a new crush she might be able to get over him but her new crush, whom she had been told was Miss Chatham's nephew also had chosen one of the mermaids over her. And not one of the original three either. Some old woman who'd miraculously turned young and had all three powers over water. Too bad Dr. Denman had failed to keep her locked up. No, not even a top scientist like Linda Denman could keep those girls at bay. And Charlotte was left the loser once again. She wanted to be a super mermaid. She wanted to be like her grandmother, only better. She wanted to be special but her plans never succeeded.

The caller ID said, 'Harrison Bennett'.

"What does he want?" Charlotte wondered aloud. She barely knew the man. As far as she knew he was some rich guy who's son happened to be dating Rikki. And as she tended to steer clear of anyone close to Rikki or the others, she certainly didn't want to talk to him right now. But curiosity won her over and she hit 'accept incoming call'.

"Ms. Watsford?" Mr. Harrison asked.

"Speaking." Charlotte told him.

"Hello, this is Harrison Bennett." Mr. Harrison said by way of greeting.

"Yes, I know." Charlotte said in a testy voice. "What do you want?"

"I heard a rumor that you helped Dr. Denman catch a mermaid, before that unfortunate accident...memory loss, terrible." He paused for a moment and then went on. "Well anyway, as you may or may not know, I've gone and purchased Mako Island. I plan to open it as a resort for tourists."

"I've heard." Charlotte tapped her fingers on the outdoor table that stood close to the lounge chair.

"Good, well I know that Mako has this strange effect on mermaids and I was wondering if you could explain it to me so I could fully understand it." Mr. Bennett told her.

"Why should I?" Charlotte wanted to know what was in it for her. Why should she help some rich man get richer? He probably wasn't even going to give her a cut.

"I'll pay you." He offered. "Good money."

She wasn't sure yet. "Why do you want to know about the mermaids anyway?"

"Zoos that show ordinary run of the mill animals make very rich men out of some people. Can you imagine how wealthy a man who could show tourists real mythical creatures would become?" He let that sink in.

"So you want to keep them locked up, tested on, all that?" Charlotte asked him.

"Is that a problem?" He sounded very disappointed. "You seemed so willing to let Dr. Denman have a mermaid last time, why not me?"

Could this finally be the revenge she'd been longing for? She could get rid of Susan once and for all, and maybe the other three too. A life without Susan, Cleo, or those other twits may have been tempting, but these plans had backfired twice before.

She hesitated for a moment, thinking about how every day she had to see Lewis and Cleo walking hand in hand in the school hallways. And how in the evenings when she walked home from tutoring unbelievably dumb students, she always had to see Susan and Peter together at the pier. And all four were still mermaids, with powers. Awful. She'd wanted to be a mermaid, like her grandmother. They'd just stumbled upon it. And yet she'd lost everything and they always won. It was like someone had decided that she was the loser and would always be the loser. No, she wouldn't let this last chance to get back them get away.

"No problem at all." Charlotte told Mr. Harrison. "I was just checking to make sure we understood each other. Let's talk about Mako."

At 6:29 PM, Everyone arrived at Max's house.

"It's going to be a bit of a tight fit." Max told them, letting them in.

"It's alright, I've brought some sleeping bags." Emma lifted up a large orange duffle bag she was struggling to get through the door.

"That's our Emma." Cleo said supportively. "Always prepared."

"I brought a torch." Rikki put in rather pathetically, to get a little bit of credit for herself. She lifted up the black plastic flashlight as she spoke.

Peter was suppressing a laugh, looking over at Susan.

"What's so funny?" She asked, touching her face self-consciously.

"Do you remember your first full moon when you kicked me in the face?" Peter grinned at her.

"That was awful." Susan recalled, knowing it wasn't something to smile about but smiling anyway. "That was some black eye you had."

"If it makes you feel any better, they once flung me from one end of Mako to the other after being moonstruck." Lewis fake-glared at Rikki, Cleo, and Emma.

"Well I think what happened during the full moon after that one more than made up for it." Peter raised an eyebrow at Susan causing her to blush.

"Oh yeah, she told us about that." Emma said, as she struggled with the zipper of one of the sleeping bags.

"Took you long enough to tell me what happened though." Susan teased, flirting with him a little bit.

"Well you know now." He flirted back.

"Alright, enough you two!" Rikki rolled her eyes. "You make me sick."

"We're in love, we can't help it." Peter sighed still gazing at her.

"God, you're worse than..." Rikki motioned to Cleo who had just kissed Lewis on the cheek while he fiddled with the locket around her neck.

"If we ever get that bad, smack me." Zane whispered to Rikki.

"Done." Rikki told him.

"Oh come on, it's not like you two don't flirt with each other." Cleo laughed, as Lewis pulled away from her and went to help Max make sure the room was completely moon-proof.

"Not in front of everyone." Rikki pointed out.

"She has a point." Julia said, she had the same feelings about public displays of affection as Rikki. Not that she had anyone to share such things with anyway, not since she'd never gone back to the one boy she'd truly cared about.

"I saw you and Ed acting pretty lovey-dovey once." Peter reminded her.

"We didn't know you were there." Even though it had taken place so many years ago, the thought of it still made Julia turn a little red. Though so much time had gone by, she still remembered it as if it had happened only a day ago. She could still see Edmund perfectly in her mind's eye. She still remembered how they'd met at the department store and how she'd walked away with strange feeling that something was happening though she hadn't been sure what.

"Alright everyone," Lewis announced. "The moon is going to rise in..." He looked at his watch. "Ten minutes. If anyone has anything they need to do outside, do it now or commit yourselves to staying in here all night."

"I'm all set." Emma told him.

Rikki nodded and took out her iPod and a small pair of headphones.

"I'm really worried." Cleo said, eyeing the tightly closed shutters and curtains. What if some moonlight got through?

"Don't worry, Cleo." Lewis told her. "We duck taped all the cracks. No moonlight is going to get in here."

"So what do we do now?" Ash asked.

"We sit and wait for the moon to pass." Max took a seat on the couch and started flipping through a magazine about fishing.

"Why don't we watch a movie or something while we wait?" Ash suggested opening his backpack and looking for the DVDs he'd brought with him.

"I'm too nervous for a movie." Cleo's hands were shaking. "Something's going to go wrong. One of us always gets hit by the full moon and does weird things."

"It'll be alright." Julia tried to reassure her. "Every once in a while, I managed to avoid the full moon."

"I avoided it for years." Susan pointed out.

"Alright, maybe I am over-reacting." Cleo took in a deep breath and let it out. "No need to worry."

The watch on Lewis's arm beeped. He glanced down at it. "Moon's up."

"Great." Rikki muttered.

"Let's watch the news." Zane suggested, looking rather annoyed. "My dad's going to be on it, live talking about his plans to ruin...I'm sorry, 'improve' Mako Island." He did angry air quotes on the word 'improve'.

Max handed him the remote.

"It's not turning on." Zane said, clicking power button the remote. "Is it the batteries?"

"No, that button's broken, you have to turn it on from the TV set then use the remote..." Max got up and showed him how the old set worked.

"Okay, got it." Zane flipped through the channels until he reached the one with the nightly news.

A tall twenty-nine year old blond woman with way too much skin showing and with a frilly pink scarf around her neck, walked along the decks of the local harbor talking into a microphone.

"I'm Kendra with the seven 'o clock news, and we're here with Harrison Bennett who plans to turn the previously untouched Mako Island into a resort." The camera panned over to Zane's father who was standing right beside her.

"Tell us, Mr. Bennett, do you think people will be upset because of the possibly of endangered animals being harmed?" She put the microphone to his lips.

"No. In fact, I believe that we may discover more creatures during building meaning my plans would help not only the economy but also, science." He smiled into the camera. "What we're doing is going to make the world a better place."

"Powerful words from a powerful man." Kendra practically gigged into her microphone.

"Get me a waste basket, he makes me want to puke." Rikki muttered, glaring at the TV screen.

"Tell me about it." Zane groaned.

The reporter didn't seem to feel the same way after giggling for a good three minutes, She added, "This reporter personally feels that this is going to be new turn in the way business around here works and feel honored to..."

"Oh, for god's sake." Zane barked at the screen. "Just ask him to take you to dinner already, so you can get your scrawny chicken-bone hands on his money."

"I can't believe my parents are friends with him." Emma growled.

Suddenly the camera on screen turned up at the sky. The man working the live feed must have tripped and/or fallen down. It focused on the bright full moon.

All four mermaids saw it's light come through the TV, into the room. Their eyes went wide and the gazed at the screen more intensely now.

It was Julia who realized what was happening first.

She jumped up and turned the TV off.

"Why'd you do that?" Zane asked, looking behind him to see the four mermaids looking very unwell.

"Oh no." Peter rushed over to Susan's side. "Su?"

She blinked, there was no more moonlight in the room. "What happened?"

"I thought you were moonstruck for a moment there." Peter told her, looking very worried. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine." She said, her voice sounded a little distant.

"Emma?" Ash asked.

"I'm alright." Emma's voice seemed distant too.

Cleo stood up and started looking around the room for something.

"She's looking for moonlight." Max said, keeping his eye on her to make sure she didn't head for the door. "They _are_ moonstruck. _All_ of them."

"Oh, great..." Ash moaned.


	5. A Moonstruck Adventure

"How is that possible?" Zane asked. "How could they get moonstruck just from seeing the moon on TV?"

"It was a live feed." Max sighed, putting his hand to his forehead.

"This really shouldn't surprise us as much as it does." Lewis told them. "After all, they get moonstruck just seeing the moon's reflection, or a little bit of the moonlight, why not on TV?"

"But Emma's seen the full moon on TV before and this has never happened." Ash pointed out.

"That's because it wasn't live." Max reminded him. "And for all we know it might not have even been the real moon then, it could have been a studio moon which had no effect on her, unlike this one."

"Whatever the reason, we can't let them touch water." Louise said firmly. "If they touch water, we are done for."

"Alright, well they're all where we can see them, that's good." Lewis tried to be cheerful about that.

"Wait, where's Emma?" Peter looked around the room franticly, realizing that they suddenly only had three mermaids and not four.

"Em?" Ash called, walking into the kitchen. "Emma?"

Emma stuck her head out of the fridge, a piece of shrimp hung from the Conner of her mouth.

"Well, at least it's not water." Zane shrugged, entering the kitchen behind Ash.

"Hmm." Emma murmured, swallowing the piece of shrimp and then going back into the fridge again, pulling out a piece of raw fish and pretty much eating it whole right in from of the guys.

"Ew." Muttered Zane.

"Come on, Emma, let's go sit down in the living room where we can keep an eye on you, alright?" Ash put his arm around her and tried to nudge into the other room.

"Will there be sea food?" Emma asked, her distant wide eyes shinning brightly. She was still holding a plate of sea food that she refused to let go of.

"Of course." Ash lied.

Zane popped a leftover piece of shrimp that Emma had accidently dropped on the floor into his mouth when he thought Ash wasn't looking.

"Zane!"

"What?" He protested. "I had to skip dinner to get here on time."

"Whatever." Ash muttered, pulling Emma away from the bucket of ice water she was eyeing.

Back in the living room, Louise, William, and Lewis were struggling to pry Cleo away from one of the windows. She was trying to get the duck tape off the side crack so she could see the moonlight.

"Little help?" William asked looking over at Max, Peter, and Julia.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye on Rikki and Susan, you help them get Cleo away from that window." Julia told them.

"But the moon is so beautiful." Cleo protested as she struggled to get out of their grip. "I want to look at is some more."

"No you don't, Cleo." Lewis told her. "You have to stay away from it."

"But I want to look at it." Cleo insisted, finally breaking free of Louise's grip and almost getting her hands on the duck tape again.

"Peter, grab her hand, quick!" Lewis cried.

Peter grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from the shutters and duck tape.

Rikki got up. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Don't let her." Lewis told Julia, as he and Peter forced Cleo onto the couch while William and Louise made sure that the tape wasn't coming off because of Cleo's work on it.

"I can't not let her go to the bathroom." Julia reminded him. "It's the bathroom."

"But she might touch water." Lewis said pushing Cleo back down onto the couch as she struggled to get up again.

"Well, I'm not going in there with her." Julia said firmly. "There are some lines I will not cross."

Rikki was already headed for the bathroom while they were talking.

"I'll go with her." Zane offered, as he tried to pull a bit of raw squid away from Emma and ended up with bite marks on his fingers. "Ow!"

"You most certainly will not." Miss Chatham retorted.

"Well at the very least, there's no way out of that bathroom." Max said, thoughtfully. "Once she's in there, she can't get out without going passed us. And she can't get anymore moonstruck in there either. No windows."

"I say we lock her in." Lewis suggested. "That way, even if she does touch water, she can't hurt anyone."

"Alright." Max got up, walked to the bathroom and locked the door behind Rikki. He pressed his ear on the wood of the door in order to hear what was going on. He could hear the tub filling up, and the sound of a fish tail flopping.

"I'm not sure that was the best idea." Miss Chatham sighed when Max came to tell them all that Rikki was safely locked away in the bathroom.

"Why not?" Lewis asked.

"She touched water." Louise reminded him simply.

"So?" Zane asked, putting a band aid on the now bloody teeth marks Emma had left on his finger. "By the way..." He showed his finger to Ash. "Does this look infected to you?"

"Oh shut up." William barked at Zane.

"Why isn't Susan doing anything?" Peter noticed that she wasn't trying to see the moonlight, or get to the water, or eat unnatural amounts of fish. She was just sitting there, gaping into space.

"Maybe she didn't get it as bad as the others." Ash said.

"No, she's got it just as bad, if not worse." Max warned them. "Look at her eyes. Those are the eyes of a moonstruck mermaid if I ever saw one."

"Too bad professor Kirke's not here." Peter said wistfully.

"Who is this professor Kirke?" Max asked.

"Well he's a friend of mine and Susan's who knows a lot about mermaids." Peter explained. "He was a big help one time when Susan got a really bad case of the full moon and swam all the way back to England from America."

"I haven't heard that story." Max sounded fascinated. "Do tell."

"Yes, do." Lewis added.

"Can we stroll down memory lane later?" Zane barked, pulling off the band aid with a shudder because he'd put it on wrong, due to being a bit distracted by Emma who'd somehow gotten a hold of a baked lobster that Max had been saving. "We've got too much to handle without having story time right now."

"Wow is it just me or is it getting really warm in here?" Lewis asked nervously.

"Actually, I'm rather cold." William told him.

"But you're closer to the heater." Lewis pointed out,

"I know, but I'm telling you it's colder over here." William insisted.

Lewis walked over, "Brr! You were right!" He started shivering. "But it's burning hot over there."

William got up to check. "You were right too."

"Um, is Susan's left cheek naturally that purple?" Lewis asked, pointing to Susan's swollen nearly frozen cheek.

Peter rushed over and put his hand on the cheek. He quickly pulled it away. "She's like an ice bucket! What's happening?"

"Peter!" William's eyes widened. "Her other cheek's turning red!"

Peter put his hand on that cheek. "Ow! hot!" There was a slight burn bubbling up on his finger now.

Susan looked up at him nervously. "I'm sorry Peter, I didn't mean to."

"It's alright." Peter tried to comfort her.

"No it's not." Susan said, her voice cracking a little. "I hurt you." she looked down at the burn on his finger.

"You didn't mean it, it was an accident." Peter said kindly.

Susan started crying.

"Don't cry, Su." Peter said, taking a step closer to her. "Look, I'm fine." He put his hand on her shoulder (unfortunately on the side of her body that was burning up not the side of her body that was getting cooler).

"Ow!" He'd gotten a worse burn this time.

Susan started crying even harder now.

"I remember this." Julia gulped looking very frightened.

"So do I." Lewis gasped. "Something similar happened to Rikki, the first time the full moon hit her except she didn't have a cool side. She just made the whole room burn up."

"That's because she could only heat things up." Julia reminded him. "I had the same power to boil water. Susan has all three powers...two of them are going crazy now...I don't know about the third."

Susan got up and shifted away from Peter. "Don't touch me." She whimpered. She moved her hand in the direction of the kitchen. Even though the faucet wasn't turn on, a lot of water pressure suddenly built up and shoot out into the floor, trickling down the tiles towards the living room.

"I'm guessing that's the third power?" Zane said.

"Everyone's in danger here." Susan cried. "And it's all my fault."

"Susan, it's not your fault. You're just a little moonstruck" Peter assured her. "Calm down."

"Maybe you're right." Susan nodded.

"Of course I am." Peter told her. "Just calm down, it'll all be over soon."

William got a fan and pointed it at the warm side of Susan. "Maybe that'll help."

"It's not working. We've closed up all the vents and it's getting too hot in here." Susan bawled.

"Her cool side's getting hot now." Ash warned them, seeing the purple turn to blue then to pink and finally to a bright red.

Cleo got up from the couch and tried to lift the duck tape again.

Everyone was so concerned with Susan that they didn't notice until the shutters were tossed back and tons of shimmering white moonlight poured into the room.

Cleo let out a giggle. "I told you it was beautiful."

Peter, Lewis, Julia, Max, William, and Louise left Susan and rushed over to close the window and force Cleo away from it again.

"I want my tail." She told them, grabbing onto the window. "I want to see the moon, let me go!"

Peter grabbed onto her feet, William grabbed onto her legs, and Miss Chatham and Max struggled to get her fingers to uncurl from the dents in the shutter.

After they finally pulled her away again, Peter looked back at where Susan had been. She wasn't there anymore.

"Where's Susan?" Miss Chatham gasped. "Wasn't she there a moment ago?"

"She has to be in this house somewhere." Lewis tried to calm everyone down. "I'll look in the kitchen, Peter you check the hallway."

"Moonlight." Cleo sighed happily.

"Where?" William followed her eyes. They were focused on the open front door.

"This is bad." Lewis said.

"I have to go find her." Peter raced over to the door. "No one follow me, alright?"

"Peter, wait!" Miss Chatham called after him.

He stopped and turned around. "I have to do this."

"Peter, listen to me." Miss Chatham said in a firm, wise old voice. "When you find her, get her into the moon pool."

"But what about the special moon tonight?" Lewis protested. "It's possible that she could lose all her powers forever if she's in there."

"No it's not." Max assured him. "it's not that kind of special moon. It's just really strong."

"If it's strong, putting her in the moon pool could hurt her. I wont do it." Peter insisted.

"It might protect her this time." Miss Chatham said. "You have to get her there or she might over-heat, over-freeze or who knows what else."

"Fine." Peter said, turning to Lewis now. "I need to borrow your boat."

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Lewis asked him.

"Yes, I'm sure. You have to stay here with Cleo, Rikki, and Emma." Peter said, as Lewis tossed him the boat keys.

"But they've got the others to look after them, you can't go all by yourself. And Mako's a private island now..." Lewis explained.

"There's nothing I can do about that." Peter was unwilling to change his mind. He had to find Susan and he had to go alone. That was that. "It's like you said, it's a private island, more than one person might be noticed more easily."

"At least take Rikki's torch." Zane tossed the flashlight to Peter and he caught it with his free hand.

"Thanks." He ran out the door.

Cleo tried to follow him but the others held her back.

"Shut that door." Max ordered.

Lewis quickly slammed it shut.

Peter was in Lewis's boat zooming towards Mako Island as fast as the boat would go. And it still wasn't fast enough. What if Susan got caught at Mako by someone who worked for Mr. Bennett? What if she over heated or over cooled to the point of injury before he could reach her? How on earth had she gotten out of that house so quietly?

Finally the boat pulled into the sandy beach and Peter jumped off the boat and headed for the thick trees.

On the ground he saw what looked like the muddy tracks of a tail dragging itself along then that stopped and turned into foot prints. Her human half was really fighting her mermaid half this time.

"Susan?" He called into the woods. "It's me, Peter. You don't have to worry, everything's fine."

He came across what looked like three burned up trees two frozen trees and one bush that was so wet that it had been drowned to the point of never blooming again. At least now he knew he was going the right way.

Susan sat next on a tree stump with her face buried in her hands.

"Susan!" Peter cried running over to her.

She didn't look up. "Go away."

"Are you alright?" He tried to put his arm around her but she moved away from the stump and plopped on the ground. "I was so worried about you."

"Please just go away." Susan begged him.

"Susan, it's just the full moon." Peter said softly. "It's not you. Nothing bad is going to happen. We just have to get you to the moon pool, then we'll get you back home tomorrow. Everything's going to be fine."

"I don't want to hurt you." Susan said looking up at him pleadingly.

"I know you don't." He reached out for her again.

She moved further away. "Don't touch me."

"Alright, I wont." He gave in. "but you have to go right to the moon pool on your own, got it?"

Susan nodded and stood up. "I'll go by the water way."

"Good." Peter breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course he wasn't going to completely take her for her word while she was moonstruck. He was going to check the moon pool to make sure she actually went there.

Careful not to fall down as almost everyone who entered through the land way to the cave the moon pool was located in did, Peter climbed down.

The full moon wasn't completely over the pool yet. There was a series of ripples and then, much to Peter's great relief, Susan surfaced. She'd kept her word.

"Feeling any better?" He asked, squating down to be on eye level with her.

"A little." She told him. "I'm not burning or freezing anymore..." She glanced up at the moon. "It's so lovely. Why am I so scared of it?"

"That would be because it makes you do crazy things every time it gets full?" Peter said almost laughing as he spoke.

"Maybe it's meant to be this way." Susan said in a dreamy voice. "Maybe I'm supposed to be a mermaid all the time like this. I'm much happier when I'm in the water."

"Then we'll see that you stay in it then." A voice came from behind Peter.

He quickly stood up and spun around. Harrison Bennett was standing there.

"If you even try to hurt her..." Peter threatened.

"Hurt _her_?" Mr. Bennett's eyes widened with fake-shock. "Aren't you worried about what I'm going to do to you for trespassing on my land?"

The full moon came completely over the moon pool causing it to bubble and shine. Susan felt much stronger all of a sudden. She lifted the water and made a block of ice, flinging it at Mr. Bennett's head.

"Stay away from him." She ordered.

Mr. Bennett managed to duck and avoid getting hit in the head by the ice block.

"Susan." Peter told her. "Listen to me, swim home now. I'll meet you later."

"I _am_ home." Susan insisted.

"I'm glad you plan to stay here." Harrison Bennett grinned at her. "I hope you like Bennett's white-gold sand resort getaway catchy name no?"

Susan let out a snort of disproval.

"Come on, it's expense sounding yet tasteful." He defended the name.

"It's stupid, yet stupid." Peter muttered.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes. "the name's a working progress."

"I was hoping to have four mermaids, when are the other three set to arrive?" Mr. Bennett asked, his eyes shinning bright with greed.

"They aren't coming." Peter told him.

"I'll settle for this one for now I guess." Mr. Bennett sighed.

"You can't force her to be your slave." Peter glared at him.

"I'm not focusing her." He laughed. "She's going to do it more than willingly."

"What makes you think that?" Peter asked him.

"I know from a reliable source that Mermaids are hard to control during the full moon but little Sydney here..."

"Her name's Susan." Peter corrected him, willing himself not to add, "You idiot."

"Whatever." He waved that off. "This mermaid has one weakness."

"And what's that?" Peter had a feeling he wasn't going to like the answer.

"I'm looking at him." Mr. Bennett said proudly. "

"What?"

"She doesn't want you to get hurt. Not even now." Harrison Bennett pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. "If this is how it has to be...I'll threaten your life, and she's give me her's."

"Over my dead body." Peter hissed.

"That was kind of the plan." Mr. Bennett laughed.

"Wait, don't hurt him." Susan pleaded from the moon pool.

"Stay out of this." Peter told her. "Get out of here. I'll see you later."

Suddenly, Susan looked so angry that Peter got shivers up his shine. He wondered how Mr. Bennett could stay having someone look at him like that.

Susan lifted her hand, controlling the water in the air, she caused a wind storm that blew the gun right out of Mr. Bennett's hand, smashing it to bits on a rock. Then she clenched her fist the way she did when she made water boil and lightning struck the ground two feet away from him.

"I said, don't hurt him." Susan said, her voice firm but still distant.

Mr. Bennett let out a whimper and rushed out of the cave. He wasn't done yet. No he still had his wicked plans. And Mako was still going to become a resort. And of course he still wanted to use the mermaids for his own gain. But he couldn't stick around now. It was too dangerous.

"Um Su.." Peter looked at her nervously. "How did you do that?"

Susan looked up at the moon again. "It's a special one this time."


	6. The morning after

"You just saved me." Peter said, gaping down at Susan. His expression was a mixture of gratitude, amazement, and disbelief.

"I told you I didn't want you to get hurt." Susan smiled at him.

"Look." Peter pointed to the top of the moon pool. "The moon's almost away from the pool."

"The moon." Susan sighed happily, unintentionally reminding Peter that she was still moonstruck.

"Now that you're alright, let's get you out of here." Peter offered his hand, hoping she would grab onto it in spite of her desire to stay in the moon pool.

She didn't take his hand. She just blinked at him as if she suddenly had no idea who he was. The moon was no longer hanging over the pool but it would be hours before it set.

Feeling pretty sure it was safe to go on and that any chance of being turned into a member of the merfolk himself was long over, Peter dived into the moon pool. He was a reasonably strong swimmer. You had to know how to do that sort of thing when you were a High King over a whole country.

Susan seemed more than pleased that he had joined her. "Isn't this the nicest place that ever was?" She beamed at him. "Mako Island is so wonderful."

"It is." Peter said rather mournfully, thinking about Harrison Bennett's plans.

Even if they succeeded in keeping Susan, Cleo, Rikki, and Emma safe, there was a good chance they would fail to protect Mako in the process. Somehow, looking first into the mermaid's bright shinning eyes and then up to the clear star-filled sky above the volcano like covering, he knew Mako's time was coming to an end. And that there might just be nothing he could do about it. He wouldn't be able to safe this place anymore than he was able to save Narnia. Narnia was long gone. Mako didn't seem to belong in this world it seemed to be a world of it's own, small enough to fit in ours but never truly a part of it.

Wordlessly, they laid on their backs and floated in the water for hours and hours just looking at the sky shinning above them.

"I know you probably wont remember any of this when the moon goes down but, thanks." Peter turned his head to face her while still floating, causing half of his face to sink under the surface of the water.

Susan swam closer to him reaching out and stroking his cheek under the water.

"The sun's rising." Peter noticed the cave was a little lighter now. "The full moon will be over in an hour."

"Goodbye moon." Susan's voice sounded pathetically sad and wistful.

"They'll be another one next month." Peter groaned, wishing that fact wasn't true. "I just don't know where you'll go. By then this place will likely be long gone."

"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard." Susan whispered, looking like she might cry.

"I hope the others are alright." Peter thought of Rikki, Cleo, and Emma still moonstruck back at Max's house and wondered what they were doing.

Cleo was actually strapped to a chair in Max's kitchen with her tail fully formed. She looked furious.

"Sorry, Cleo." Lewis said giving her an apologetic glance. "But we can't risk losing you too."

"I can't take this anymore." Ash groaned, rubbing his head forehead with his index finger and thumb. He'd been up all night trying to keep Emma and Cleo away from water and sea food. And it had been terribly unsuccessful. Cleo had somehow gotten her hands wet, resulting in the formed tail. As for Emma, he didn't even want to think about the stomachache that poor girl was going to have when she returned to normal. "How much longer?"

"Just a little less than an hour." Lewis checked his watch.

"Thank god." Muttered Zane, who was half asleep, leaning with his back against an open doorway.

Back at Mako Island, Peter pulled himself out of the moon pool onto the solid ground of the cave. He was utterly exhausted. Too tired to swim or even float anymore. Susan pulled herself up beside him, her long gold tail making a loud flop on the rocky surface. She felt a little chilly in the open air after being in the water for so long. She started to shiver, scooting herself closer to Peter who put his arm around her, drawing her even closer. Feeling rather tired herself, Susan closed her eyes and fell asleep. At first Peter tried to fight his closing eyelids. He knew Susan was still moonstruck and didn't feel comfortable resting until she returned to normal. but with a heavy sigh, he gave in to his drowsiness. There was less than an hour of this left anyway. Everything would be fine.

Three hours later, Susan woke up. Her tail was gone and her legs had returned. Her eyes grew wide with fear as she realized that she was in the moon pool cave on Mako. The last thing she could remember had been watching Zane's father on TV and now suddenly she was here. She felt a warm arm around her waist and heard a slight snore. Slowly, she rolled over to see who it was.

"Peter?" Susan said, nudging him awake. "What are we doing here?"

"Good morning to you too." Peter joked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I got moonstruck didn't I?" Susan asked even though she already knew the answer.

He nodded yes.

"How?" Had they gone through all that trouble covering up all the windows, cracks, doors etc. for nothing?

"You saw the moon on a live feed." Peter explained.

"The others..." Susan asked in a worried tone. "They...what happened to them? Are they alright?"

"Emma, Cleo, and Rikki are back at Max's house." Peter told her, standing up and taking her hand to help her up. "But now that you're back to normal, we've got to get out of here."

"What happened last night?" Susan wanted to know.

"You saved me from getting shot by Zane's father." Peter said causally, suppressing a smile, knowing it wasn't the sort of thing you said in passing.

"What?" Susan gasped.

"He pulled a gun out at me and you blew it away." He explained as they walked out of the top of the cave, and towards the island shore where he'd left Lewis's boat.

"How?" Susan asked.

"You used the water in the air to control the wind, it was incredible." Peter beamed at her. "I wish you could remember the look on Mr. Bennett's face!"

"But why did he pull a gun out on you?" Susan asked, keeping the most important things in mind.

"It's a long story." Peter took a deep breath and told her about Harrison Bennett's plans not only to develop Mako but also to expose the mermaid secret to the world.

"Why do people always do this?" Susan whispered softly. "First Ella, then Dr. Denman, now Mr. Bennett. Why can't they just leave us alone?"

"People are greedy pigs." Peter muttered, then he looked back at Susan and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "but don't worry, I wont let them hurt you, or your friends."

She smiled back, then slowly, the smile faded as they reached the shoreline and there was no boat in sight. "Peter, where did you say you left Lewis's boat?"

"Hang it all!" Peter growled. "Harrison Bennett probably took it to get back at us."

"Peter!" Susan grabbed his arm and pointed to a speed boat in the distance coming into view.

"Must be Mr. Bennett." Peter said, standing protectively closer to Susan. "He's not the sort to give up so easily."

Susan pulled him behind a rock closer to the water. "Come on," started crawling into the water.

"Susan, what are you doing!" Peter grabbed her before she could make contact with the sea.

"We're getting out of here." Susan told him. "Hold onto my tail and I'll swim us back to the mainland."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Peter asked, looking anxiously out at the deep blue ocean ahead of them.

Susan thought it over for a moment. "How long can you hold your breath?"

"A while." Peter admitted.

"Then we'll be fine." Susan said. "But whatever you do, don't let go."

"I wont." Peter promised, grabbing onto her tail as it formed.

Susan had always been a naturally fast swimmer. Even before she became a mermaid. She understood better than anyone how Emma felt after having to quit the swim team. She knew what it was like to have confused or even angry questionings about why she would give up everything she worked for so suddenly. As a mermaid however she'd become much faster than she'd ever been in her human form. It was this speed which helped her travel from America to England in one night (Not that she could ever do that without being moonstruck, she'd have been way too afraid) and it was this super mermaid speed that was enabling her to pass the speed boat. However the added weight of Peter holding on made her a bit slower and she couldn't help but worry about him running out of air before they reached the shoreline. She could hear soft bubbling gasping noises below her. She wanted to wait a little longer so that whomever was on the boat (Likely Mr. Bennett) couldn't see them but she wasn't willing to risk it. She pushed up her fin so that Peter's head went above the water. He took in a rather raspy gasp of air and opened his eyes for a moment. Salt water spilled in, making them smart terribly.

"Peter!" A voice on the boat that did not belong to Mr. Bennett called out.

It was one of the Bennett family's boats but it wasn't a dangerous rider on board. It was Rikki and Zane.

After the moon went down, Rikki got out of the bathroom that she'd been locked in all night and asked what had happened. After they explained it to her she and Zane had gotten into one of his father's many boats, zooming towards Mako to find Peter and Susan. (Harrison Bennett would probably be beyond peeved but they didn't care).

When Susan tried to pull her tail back down, Peter pulled it up. It was a bit rough though he didn't mean to be, he was only trying to alert her to the fact that they didn't need to flee from the boat.

"Get in." Rikki said as Zane edged the boat a little closer to them.

If Susan hadn't trusted Peter as much as she did, she might have kept going not being able to hear Rikki's voice over the sounds of rushing water and loud motor. Trusting him completely, Susan lifted her head out of the water and grabbed onto the side of the boat.

"Thank goodness you're alright." Rikki smiled at her. "We were all so worried."

Peter pulled himself onto the boat as Rikki started using her boiling powers to steam-dry Susan's tail away.

"Stay away on that side of the boat." Rikki insisted, eyeing his dripping wet clothes. "The last thing I want right now is my tail forming."

Peter sneezed into the back of his hand. "Achoo!"

"Poor thing." Susan sighed sympathetically.

"At least I'm alive." Peter reminded her. He looked over at Zane. "You wont believe what your father tried to do to me."

"I would." Rikki tossed up her nose and flipped a lock of curly blond hair over her shoulder as she spoke. She hated Zane's dad. the stuck up prig had always thought his son was too good for her and that he should date air headed girls from rich families who had more plastic in their bodies than Barbie. Mr. Bennett still made constant hints that Zane would be better off dating Miriam.

"He pointed a gun at me." Peter told him rather gravely knowing it must be hard to hear these things about your own father. "He would have shot me if Susan hadn't used her powers to blast his gun on the side of that rock."

"Why would he do that?" Zane wondered aloud. "I mean I get that the man doesn't like trespassing but that doesn't sound like him."

"He's telling the truth, Zane." Susan said.

"How would you know?" Zane lashed out. "you don't even remember."

"Why would I make this up?" Peter asked.

"I don't know." Zane said miserably. "Maybe you misunderstood him, I mean, yeah my dad's pretty nasty sometimes when people get in his way but he wouldn't...he wouldn't do that..."

"I believe you." Rikki told Peter.

"Rikki, I'm telling you, my father wouldn't do that." Zane didn't want it to be true although deep down, he really believed, even knew, that it was.

"Zane, you've got to believe me." Peter insisted. "You're father is a very dangerous man, even more than we realized."

"But why would he try to kill _you_?" Zane demanded. "He doesn't even know you!"

"Someone told him about Susan being a mermaid." Peter explained.

"Just Susan?" Rikki asked.

Peter shook his head. "No. He found out about you, Emma, and Cleo still being mermaids as well. He wants to use all four of you as a tourist attraction."

"He can't..." Zane stared out at the horizon wishing this wasn't happening. All those years of believing that deep down his father was a good man who understood life and just hid it behind fancy things, sour expressions, and unkind words were fading away. His father was a bad man and he had to accept that now. He had to choice a side. And there was no way he'd choice Harrison Bennett (Much as he cared about his father) over Rikki and her friends. He couldn't let them down.

The boat pulled into the harbor. Zane and Rikki jumped out of the boat and onto the dock. Peter helped Susan from the boat onto the first wooden step of the dock so she didn't fall.

The four of them raced back to Max's house. They looked horrible with they're sleep-deprived, bloodshot eyes, and messed up hair. They smelled like they'd spend the night on a fishing boat. Peter's clothes were still slightly damp. Their feet felt sore and the hot sand that they had to run over made them burn and sting. But they ignored the pain and ran even faster. They couldn't risk behind seen by anyone who might ask questions about where they had just come from.

Max stuck his head out the door and smiled with relief when he saw them coming. "Thank god!" He exclaimed happily, opening the door wider so they could all get inside.

They heard a soft moaning sound coming from the couch, Emma was lying on it, holding her stomach. The sea food had really upset her. Ash was holding a puke bucket that now smelled like rotten shrimp.

"Poor Emma." Cleo sighed, as her friend grabbed the bucket from Ash and hurled in it again.

"The sea food?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The sea food." Ash nodded, looking down at the bucket now being placed back into his hands. If he had to look at that and smell that one second longer, Emma wasn't going to be the only one throwing up.

"Susan!" Cleo jumped up and ran over to hug her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Susan assured her.

"I can't believe we got moonstruck after all that." Cleo shook her head sadly.

"There's a lot more to it." Susan told her. She looked over at Peter. "I think you should tell them what Harrison's real plans for Mako Island are."

Peter took a seat beside Emma, who with a little help managed to sit up and make some room. He told them everything that had happened and how Susan had stopped Harrison from killing him and how they were all in more danger than they'd ever imagined.

"But how did he find out?" Emma moaned, still feeling rather sick, none the better for hearing such horrible news.

"Someone told him I guess." Rikki shrugged. "We don't know who."

"But who else knows?" Julia asked them. "I thought it was just us..."

"Denman knows." Lewis reminded them.

"But Dr. Denman lost her memory." William added. "there's no way...unless she remembers now..." He shuddered at the thought of having to deal with Linda Denman again.

"Think, who else knows...?" Miss Chatham said in a voice that suggested that she'd already guessed and was waiting for them to catch up.

"Charlotte!" Cleo growled angrily.

"Would she really betray us again?" Lewis asked, wondering why Charlotte would keep doing that. If all she really wanted was to connect with her grandmother, why did she keep trying to get revenge on the mermaids? She wouldn't have liked it if something had happened to Gracie or even herself during their time as mermaids, why did she keep trying to ruin their lives now?

"I have no doubts." Rikki said firmly. She'd always disliked that girl.

"Neither do I." Susan put in. "It was her fault I got locked up in that lab before."

"Friends..." Peter began in a very kingly voice that made them all pay close attention. "I tell you all now that we are in no small danger."

"Well duh." Rikki rolled her eyes before Cleo's glare silenced her.

Peter paused for a moment and then went on. "We had bad times like this in Narnia before. Long before the sun set for the last time on that great land. I tell you all truly that there is but one thing we can do now."

"And what's that?" William wanted to know.

"We must fight for Mako, even if this is the last time." Peter told them.

"You mean like a protest?" Emma asked, not quite getting his meaning.

"No." Peter said gravely. "I mean fight."


	7. targets and strange meetings

"How many of you know how to handle a bow and arrows?" Peter asked them as they sat on the lounge chairs in Max's back yard making plans. "I'm looking for a show of hands here."

Susan was the only one who raised her hand.

William mentioned something about trying archery once in school, accidentally getting an arrow stuck in his butt and getting sent to the nurse while the other children all laughed at him.

Louise smiled as if she found that somewhat amusing although it was quite sad. "Poor thing." She suppressed a laugh of her own and gently placed her hand on top of William's.

Poor old William had never-not in his younger nor in his older years- had a woman express any interest in him. He'd fallen rather hard for a girl whom he'd thought was called Phyllis, but she was in love with his cousin. And also her name was _not_ Phyllis. But here was Louise. He thought she was very beautiful even in her old age. And the thought that she might-just might-have feelings for him made his old wrinkled cheeks turn the colour of an over ripe cherry-tomato.

Susan and Peter exchanged a glance of amusement at the possible couple. They both thought that the two would be very sweet together.

"Edmund taught me a little bit of fencing but I don't know much about that or archery." Julia admitted rather sadly.

"Alright then." Susan said in a very matter-of-fact, no nonsense voice. "Zane, Ash, and Lewis." She pointed to them. "Peter will teach you how to use a sword. Cleo, Rikki, and Emma." She turned to them now. "You're with me, I'll teach you how to use a bow and arrows."

"I'd rather use a sword." Rikki protested in an almost sulky tone.

"I have one question." Zane said looking rather smug. "My dad's got a gun, you can't use a sword against guns."

"That's what the archery is for, Zane." Emma pointed out. "They shoot off a bullet, we shoot off an arrow."

"It seems like a pretty uneven match doesn't it?" Ash said as Peter handed him a sword.

"He's right." Cleo sighed, "We have no chance."

"It's all we've got." Susan shrugged. "What else can we do?"

"Alright then, let get shooting." Rikki grabbed a hold of quiver full of arrows that Susan had set down on the ground.

Max and William set up a cardboard target and then got out of the way.

"I don't think we're far away enough." William whispered to Max.

"What are you talking about?" Max asked him. "They're all the way over there."

"We'll see how safe you feel in front of a bunch of people with weapons when you're pulling a harpoon out of your behind." William retorted.

"Arrow, William, you were hit with an arrow." Max reminded him, with a slight eye roll. "That was years ago and these kids don't even have harpoons."

"Whatever, I'm just glad I'm not wearing white pants like last time." William shuddered at the old memory.

"Girly guy jokes?" Max looked at him with more sympathy now.

"Oh yeah." William nodded his nose wrinkled up in disgust and his eyes very wide as he spoke. "I do recall being hit on the head by a few cotton pads over the course of that week."

"Tough brake, mate." Max patted him on the back.

Susan showed Rikki how to stand when you were holding a bow. "Fingers here, no there...like this." She reached out and moved Rikki's fingers to the right spots.

"Alright, now what?" Rikki asked.

"Line up with your target." Susan told her. "Feet apart...make sure you're on exact eye level..."

"And then?" Rikki looked at her expectedly.

"You let it fly." Susan gave her an encouraging smile.

"Good! Finally, the fun part." Rikki let the arrow fly. Unfortunately it didn't go anywhere near the target and it hit the neighbor's trash can.

"Hey!" an angry looking old man stuck his head out over the fence and glared at them.

"Sorry." Rikki waved at the furious-faced man.

"This is the part where I get sued." Max commented dryly.

"Hey Rikki, think you can get on the same planet as the target?" Zane teased sort of meanly.

"I dunno." Rikki glared at him, getting another arrow ready on her bow and pointing it at him threateningly. "Let's use you as the target this time."

"Okay..." Ash stepped in between them before a full blown fight could start. "Let's just try it again."

"Can I try it this time?" Emma asked.

Susan sighed. "Why not?"

Rikki handed her the bow and arrow.

Emma followed Susan's instructions and actually managed to hit the side of the target. It wasn't anywhere near the bull's-eye but it was at least in the same yard.

"Way to go, Emma!" Ash clapped for her.

Emma smiled at him and shot another one, it hit a little further in this time.

"Good job, Em." Cleo said, trying to be cheerful in spite of the fact that she was quite afraid.

"Your turn, Cleo." Emma handed her the bow.

"No, not me." Cleo took a step back, turning a little red in the face. "I can't do this."

"Sure you can." Rikki told her. "We all know you can handle it."

"I can't." Cleo gulped. "I just can't. I'll mess it up, I know I will."

"It's alright to be a little nervous at first, Cleo." Susan told her kindly. "I was a bit uncertain myself when I was first given a bow and arrow as a gift in Narnia." Susan held out the quiver and made a motion signaling for Cleo to take one out and use it.

"Alright, but don't blame me if Max get's sued." She forced a smile did what the others had done and let the arrow fly. As soon as it was air borne, Cleo closed her eyes tightly expecting disaster at any given moment.

But rather that the doom she anticipated, she saw heard clapping. Not just Lewis either. Everyone was clapping. She must have done pretty well. She opened one eye just slightly. She could just make out the shape of the target, and the arrow-her arrow-that had somehow hit the bull's-eye.

In Aslan's country, Edmund Pevensie sat by the bank of a stream looking, wondering when his brother, Peter was going to return. He'd left three days ago (In our world it had been quite few months). He wondered if Peter had found Susan or not. Even if Peter did find Susan could they really work everything out. Closing his eyes and leaning back on the soft green grass, Edmund remembered what had happened that day, the day of the crash that threw them into Aslan's country.

He had been sitting at the train station dressed in workman clothes, waiting for Peter to arrive so that they could go ding up the old rings professor Kirke had buried so long ago.

Looking up at the clock, Edmund wondered why Peter hadn't arrived yet. He was almost five minutes late. Finally, he saw him walking up towards the platform dressed in the same sort of workman clothes that he was wearing. But there was something wrong with his face. It was all red with a mix of anger, sadness, lost, and bitterness. He'd been crying. Anyone could see that.

"Peter, what's wrong?" Edmund asked him in a bewildered voice.

"Ed..." Peter choked back a sob and his voice broke. "Susan and I...we...I...I mean...I broke up with her."

"You what?" Edmund gasped. He had figured they'd fight. They'd fought quite a bit as of late but he'd never thought they'd end their relationship. Especially from Peter's end. Secretly, Edmund thought Susan might break up with him to be with someone more 'mature' and less 'controversial'. He'd heard her idiot friends telling her that she should find someone else. Susan usually just laughed it off but Edmund felt like he barely knew his sister anymore. And he barely knew what she would and wouldn't do now. Did she still love Peter? He assumed such, but he couldn't say will real conviction that he was sure of it, the way he could have only a year or so ago.

"I had to." Peter swallowed the lump forming in his throat. "You were right, Edmund."

"It's not something I wanted to be right about." Edmund told him sadly. "I know how you felt about her."

" _Felt_?" Peter shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever stop feeling that way about her."

"I'm sorry." Edmund didn't know what else to say.

"It's not your fault." Peter forced a smile.

"It's not yours either, you know that, right?" Edmund asked to be sure. "You didn't make her stop believing."

"I don't know anything anymore, Ed." Peter said softly. "Let's just go get those rings and let's not talk about this anymore, alright?"

Edmund was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when he felt someone trip over him falling flat on their face, and a muffled, "Ow!"

He opened his eyes and turned around to see a pretty young woman with dark hair brushing herself off and trying to stand up.

"Sorry." Edmund tried not to laugh. He held out his hand and helped her up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She told him laughing a little. "I didn't see you there."

"It's alright." Edmund told her, he shook her hand. "I'm King Edmund."

"My name's Gracie." She smiled at him. "Gracie Watsford."

Edmund's jaw dropped. "I know you!" He looked very excited. "I mean, not personally but, you're...you're Julia's friend, right?"

"Wait you're the same Edmund that..." Gracie seemed to be in complete shock over this news. "No way!"

"Way?" Edmund laughed again.

"You're a king?" Gracie couldn't believe this was happening. Not that it was any weirder than having a large Lion come to you on your death bed after your family had left the room and take you to his own country where you suddenly turned young and healthy again but it was pretty out there all the same.

"Yes." Edmund wasn't sure what she was getting at.

"I think we have some catching up to do." Gracie told him.

Harrison Bennett walked around Mako searching through the bushes as if expecting someone to be hiding in there. Charlotte stood a few feet behind him.

"When do I get paid?" She demanded. "It's hot out and we've been wandering around for hours. I'm telling you, Peter and Susan left already."

"But I took their boat." Harrison pointed out.

"She's a mermaid, Mr. Bennett." Charlotte tapped her foot on the rocky surface near the bush he was searching. "She probably just swam away."

"But what about Peter?" He said. "She wouldn't just leave him here."

"She could have figured out a way to take him with her." Charlotte willed herself not to add, "Duh, you're such a moron." No insults until she had a paycheck in her hands and the sweet feeling of revenge in her heart. Then she could say all the mean things about him that she wanted to. For now she had to act like he was a lot smarter than he actually was.

"Tell you what." Harrison said with a slight sigh. "You go check up there on top of that big hill and if you don't find them, we'll stop looking and have lunch."

"No." Charlotte folded her arms across her chest. "No way I'm climbing that. You said all I had to do was help you catch the mermaids. You said nothing about climbing."

"Oh come on, please?" Harrison nearly begged. "Lunch will be on me."

"It had better be expensive." Charlotte spat at him as she started climbing up the slippery slope.

"Is there any other kind of lunch?" He asked in a cocky voice.

"This is so stupid." Charlotte muttered to herself. "I don't even know why I agreed to...Whoa!" She found herself falling down the opposite side of the hill. Harrison could see that side it was too tall and steep. He couldn't see that she had fallen or if she was hurt or needed help. He just waited for her to climb back up and checked his watch occasionally.

Charlotte had the vague sense that she was rolling. Rolling faster and faster. At any moment a small stone might strike her. At that speed, it could kill her. Thankfully she felt nothing but grass and mud. If she'd had the time she might have wondered why it was so soft. why all the rocks were on the other side. It didn't make much sense.

Finally, the rolling came to an end and she could breathe freely and sit up. She heard the faintest suggestion of a growl. Looking around she saw that barely a foot away from her, stood an enormous golden Lion. His big red mouth was opened just slightly and his red-gold mane blew slightly to and fro in the breeze.


	8. The choices we're given

Charlotte wasn't sure how long she stood gaping at the great creature before it's mouth opened a very little bit wider and it spoke to her.

"Human child, come here." His voice was deep. So deep that it seemed to come down from the tips of his claws working its way through the massive body before coming out. And yet it all happened so quickly that if you blocked your ears for so much as a second you might miss the whole thing.

I'm dreaming, Charlotte thought to herself, Lion's can't talk. They just can't. I've lost my mind, I've hit my head on something, I know I have.

"Daughter of Eve, did you not hear me?" The Lion sounded a bit annoyed, even a little angry now.

She was too frightened to speak for a moment (Maybe this was more of a nightmare than a dream) and then when she mustered up enough courage to attempt a word or two, nothing would come out. Her voice felt dry and her throat sore. It took three attempts at opening and closing her mouth before she could say anything.

"M-m-my mum's name is not Eve." Charlotte finally managed to blurt out.

The Lion shook his head at her. "At least you are not the sort to pretend you can't understand me. At least you aren't that stupid."

"Am I stupid?" Charlotte's voice was nearly a whisper. She didn't know how to behave in front of this Lion. She had in the very core of her heart a sudden secret dread of him. Not because she was worried he was going to eat her. No, but simply because she felt his anger. As if she'd wronged him somehow. And she couldn't stand the look his deep golden-brown eyes kept expressing. As if he was reading her mind and hated what he saw. She didn't want him to hate her. Nor did she want him to leave her. She wanted to do something. Something, but she wasn't at all sure what that something was.

"You have become worse than the ass you'd been before." Aslan told her, his voice was very matter-of-fact, deep, and quite grave. "You were an ass the way you behaved towards those who tried to befriend you."

"Who do you mean?" Charlotte asked him. "Do you mean Rikki, Cleo, and Emma? They didn't want to be my friends! They wanted to be my mother. They bossed me around like I was some child. Like I was too much of a fool to understand my powers on my own. And then Cleo took Lewis away from me."

"Ah..." the Lion looked like he was thinking deeply about something. He shook his head. "Pride. That's your problem. You have-have always had too much of it-it does take greatly away from who you could be. Who you are truly meant to be. Don't you see?"

"See what?" Charlotte demanded. "I see nothing at all."

"That's right. To things that matter you are blind." The Lion sighed deeply, making his fair golden shoulders shake a little. "You are at a crossroads, Charlotte. Do not take the wrong fork in it."

"How do you know my name?" She gasped, putting her hand to her heart.

"I know you, through two means." Aslan explained. "One, it was you who had Susan taken away by that Denman fool. She could not hear me when I tried to speak to her, it shows that you are not so stupid as Linda was. though that is hardly much to be proud of." He let out a low growl. "To go against Susan was going against me. Keep that in mind next time."

Charlotte nodded quickly. She wouldn't want to go against this creature. She almost wanted him to eat her, swallow her whole and end it.

"Two, I know your Grandmother." Aslan said.

"Know?" Charlotte shook her head sadly. "My grandmother is dead."

"Is she?" The Lion's lips curled up, the faintest suggestion of a smile played on them. "Follow me." He started walking towards the moon pool.

Charlotte had no intention of running away but still felt too frightened to come close to his golden self. She trailed slowly behind.

One they were at the pool, the lion breathed on the water and it swirled around and around until it cleared and became window-like. Charlotte could see a garden and two people standing side by side talking. Both had dark hair. One was a young man, the other a young woman. The young woman turned around to look at something and Charlotte caught sight of her face. It was the face she had seen in photographs but never in person. And there were the bright eyes she had seen only in one old wrinkled face when she was very, very small. The eyes that were not like any other eyes. Grandmother's eyes. The man she didn't know, she had never even seen a photograph of him.

"Human child." Aslan said sternly. "See your heart's desire in that pool, but know it can never be yours if you do not put away your pride. Put it away, daughter, what have you to be proud of? Do you think yourself special now? You thought yourself a fine mermaid and you were, but you were not-are not better than the others. If you had accepted that, you wouldn't have lost your tail."

"I know." Charlotte whispered, tears rolling down her face. "I just wanted to be special. I wanted Lewis to love me. Only me."

"But you knew, dear, you did know, don't act like you didn't, that Lewis could never feel for you what he felt for Cleo." The Lion reminded her. "You knew it long before you knew your grandmother's secret. And do you think your grandmother would be proud to know that you ripped her locket off of Cleo's neck?"

"You know about that?" Charlotte gasped, turning rather red in the face.

"I know about a lot of things." He answered.

"But she's my grandmother, wouldn't she have wanted me to have it?" Charlotte protested, wanting to be at least a little in the right.

The lion let out another growl.

"I suppose not." She hung her head.

"Good you are starting to be less prideful." He looked a little pleased now.

"Um, Lion..." Charlotte didn't know what to call him by. "What is your name?"

"My name is Aslan." He told her.

"Aslan, don't you think the girls, well...didn't like me?" Charlotte shifted uncomfortably. "They never did, not even before I was a mermaid."

"You might have grown on them in time." Aslan said. "And you might have not minded losing Lewis to another if you'd viewed it with a clear head."

"Oh dear." Charlotte said sadly. "do you mean to say that if I'd stopped boasting, hadn't tried to make them lose their fins, and not have done what I did to Susan, that we all might have been great friends in the end?"

"We can never know what would have happened." Aslan said softly. "No one is ever told that. But what will happen next is up to you. Will you put your pride and lust for revenge behind you? Or will you hold onto it? That it is up to you now."

Charlotte looked back into the water, she could see her beautiful grandmother laughing and smiling. Oh, what would Grandma Gracie say if she'd known how her granddaughter had been acting? Tears streamed down her face. She'd wanted to hurt the others, but she'd never, not even for one moment wanted to hurt her grandmother.

"Aslan she doesn't know does she?" She asked eyeing the water which was darkening and swirling so that she could no longer see that other world in it.

Aslan shook his head. "No. Not yet."

"What should I do?" Charlotte came closer to the great Lion, and kneeled at his large paws, looking up his frightening but somehow wonderful face.

"Only you know that." Aslan planted a lion-kiss on her forehead. "Do make the right choice, dear one. Your fate may not be so terrible as it might have been."

And with that, the Lion blew and blew his breath picked Charlotte up off the ground and she hovered above the moon pool. She remembered the last time she'd hovered there. It had been when she'd lost her tail and powers forever. Now she felt herself going higher than that. Much higher and much closer to the sun. She was floating out of the top of the cave and up in the air, away from Mako Island, closer and closer to the mainland. Soon she felt herself going lower. And she could see the roofs of the houses in her neighborhood. Then she was even lower and could see her backyard. Suddenly her feet plunged downwards and she found herself placed back on her patio by the pool.

"When did you get back?" Her mother stuck her head out of the sliding glass door and looked strangely at her daughter.

"Just now." Charlotte answered breathlessly, thinking about all that Aslan had told and shown her. Was it possible for her to meet her grandmother again? She'd like that. She also thought she would very much like to see that Lion again, if it was allowed.

After learning how to use their weapons, Rikki, Emma, Cleo, Zane, Ash, and Lewis sat down sipping lemonade that Miss Chatham had made for everyone, while Peter began to tell them his battle plans for Mako Island.

"Those too old to fight must stay where it's safe." Peter told them. "Julia, Max, Louise, and William are going to stay on the boat."

"What boat?" Lewis asked.

"Mine." Zane told him. "It's the only one big enough to fit everyone."

"Right, their job will be to protect extra weapons, armor and other necessary provisions. Max can operate the boat and keep steering it along so as to keep it out of the sight of our enemies."

"But that only leaves us eight to fight." Ash pointed out. "Six of us, against all of those working with Mr. Bennett."

"There can't be that many of them that know how to fight and we have the element of surprise on our side. We have to strike them before they strike us. If they strike us, they'll try to take the mermaids away. We don't want that." Peter reminded him. "It's this or not fighting at all."

"We can't just let my dad win." Zane said, putting his hand on top of Rikki's in a surprisingly sweet gesture. "Not with the plans he has in mind."

"That's right." Peter nodded at them. "We have no choice."

"When do we start?" Rikki asked, letting her fingers intertwine with Zane's.

"Our great battle," Peter said shortly, not because he was cross but because he had something on his mind. "starts in less than two weeks."

Later that evening, Peter and Susan walked along the beach hand in hand. They kept a sharp eye out for Mr. Bennett but no one was around, so they relaxed a little, enjoying each other's company.

"Susan, I was thinking about something." Peter said softly, pulling her closer to him. "If something happens to me..."

Susan shook her head and put her index and middle finger on his lips. "You'll be fine."

"Su, we have to think about this realistically." Peter's tone was soft but also very serious. "Harrison Bennett would have murdered me right in front of you if he could have, you know that."

"No." Susan wasn't willing to think about what might happen to Peter. She'd lost him once before. She couldn't bare the thought of losing him again.

"If I die..." Peter started again.

"No!" Susan cried pulling her hand away from him, her eyes starting to fill with tears.

"I just want you to know that I have always and will always love you no matter what." Peter wiped the tears off her cheek with his thumb. "And I was thinking about if Harrison gets me and I don't get pulled away into Aslan's country this time and I die for real, there is only one thing I would want to be before I died."

Susan felt weak thinking of what might happen. Maybe they shouldn't join this fight. Maybe they could all run away. But looking into Peter's eyes she knew he wouldn't back down and neither would she. Mako was what had turned her into what she was. She was a mermaid and fighting for Mako was her duty. She pulled herself closer to him how.

"Susan, the only thing I would ever want to be that I'm not is your husband." Peter told her. "I know we planned on waiting a while but what do you say we get married tomorrow?"

Susan pressed her lips against his and started kissing him.

"Is that a yes?" Peter half-laughed when they finally broke away from one another.


	9. Know Who's on your Side

The Sun started to rise over the little run down house that Susan-and now Peter, had been staying in.

 _Beep, Beep, Beep!_ The alarm clock next to their bed went off letting them know that the day they'd been dreading had finally arrived.

It was the day they had to fight Harrison Bennett. The time had just flown by since they'd first started planning for the battle and had gotten married with a very simple ceremony at a town hall. (They figured they could celebrate more once they were reunited with their family in Aslan's country). What was going to happen to them today they didn't know. All they knew was that they had to fight. Had to. No way around it.

"Morning." Peter muttered as Susan sat up in the bed and reached over him to hit the snooze button.

"Morning." She smiled at him weakly. Neither had to say it, they both knew what the other was thinking, _What if one of us doesn't make it? What if this is it for both of us?_

"So today's the day." Peter said in a gloomy tone, glancing at the calendar on the far side of the wall.

"Yes, it is." Susan didn't know what else to say.

"So everyone's meeting at the Juice Net in a half hour?" Peter double checked as he climbed out of the bed and slid his feet into the slippers he'd left there the night before.

Susan nodded, getting up and walking over to the kitchen, attempting to start on breakfast, while tears she couldn't hold back anymore slid down her face. She kept telling herself everything would be fine. She reminded herself of all the harder battles Peter had fought before-and won. Or at least lived through. But something about this one made her feel nervous like it was the start of the end of something. She could feel that empty feeling she'd had when she'd thought Peter had died in the train crash of 1949.

They were together again now and married. He was right there, standing beside her, putting his arms around her but he felt so far away. she couldn't shake the feeling that she was going to lose him again.

More than anything, Peter wanted to whisper in her ear that everything was going to be fine. He wanted to promise that they'd both survive this. But he knew better than to make a promise he wasn't certain he could keep. He remembered a promise he'd made her shortly before their break up back in 1949. He'd promised he'd never leave her. And he'd broken that promise. He had come back for her as soon as he could but he'd still left her. He couldn't make another promise that might just as easily get broken.

An angry rap song blasted through the room. Peter unwrapped his arms from around Susan and walked over to where he'd left his cell phone.

The caller ID said, 'CLEO'.

"Hullo?" Peter answered the phone. "Yes, alright then, we'll meet you there."

Susan walked over to him. "What's going on?"

Peter put his hand over the mouth-piece. "Change of plans, we aren't meeting at the Juice Net. We're all meeting at the harbor in about five minutes. Harrison's starting eerily."

Susan gulped and swallowed the lump that was still fully formed in her throat. Peter reached for her hand knowing it wasn't much in the way of comfort but it was the best he could do.

Some of the things Peter had brought with him from Aslan's country made suitable clothes for such a battle. A skirt that Susan could easily move in without getting snagged, some armor, and some extra swords. He suddenly understood that not everything he'd been sent with had been to make Susan remember Narnia, much of it, had been for this battle, though he hadn't known it until now. He wasn't wearing any of the armor (That would have been a bit much to start with) but he was wearing the sort of clothes he would have worn back in Narnia if he'd been going on a raid against giants or some other unsavory creature.

Susan reached for her quiver of arrows and strapped them to her back. "Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Peter told her.

She leaned forward and kissed him. "Just in case it's the last time." She whispered finally putting their fear into words.

"Come on." he put his arm around her and they walked out of the house together. "There may just be hope for us yet."

They speed walked down to the harbor where everyone was waiting for them. They were already piled into the boat which was fully stocked with everything they'd need.

"I didn't know I could still feel this nervous about anything." Max's right hand was shaking like a leaf in a wind storm.

"Tell me about it." William shuddered, as the motor started up and they began to pull away from the shoreline. "This all seems so unreal."

"Did anyone remember to bring sandwiches?" Rikki asked, hoping to change the subject before she had to admit that she wasn't exactly feeling very calm inside herself.

"I did." Emma said, nudging a cooler with the tip of her foot.

"It's a battle, Emma, not a picnic." Zane snapped at her just for the sake of snapping at someone. There was so much tension and fear in the boat, it felt so good to release some of it.

"You'll think differently when you get hungry, Zane." Peter warned him. He clearly remembered having to stop and eat during respites back in Narnia and how awful it was when they didn't have anything to fill up on.

"We're getting closer." Ash said, looking out at the island which was becoming less of a spec in the distance.

" _Are_ we?" Zane widened his eyes with feigned surprise. "And here I thought were we going to get further away from it!"

"Oh shut up." Miss Chatham barked, fed up with his sarcastic gibes.

"Let's see if we can all be quiet until we reach the island shall we?" Julia suggested in a rather patronizing tone.

"I'm not a little kid and I'm not playing the quiet game." Zane said in a snotty tone. "Especially not on my own boat."

"You're starting to sound like your father, Zane." Lewis told him a bit harshly.

Zane glared at him. "You take that back before I make you take it back." He started to stand up.

"Sit down!" Rikki hissed, pulling him back down into his seat.

"Please don't fight." Susan begged them. "It wont make things any better having a row between the two of you."

"But he said-" Zane protested, putting a finger at Lewis.

"We all heard what he said, now hush." Peter told him sharply.

"Maybe you want to say that again without Kingy around." Zane threatened Lewis.

"Zane!" Rikki smacked his arm. "Stop it."

"Oh wow, 'Kingy', what a fancy phrase! Did you look that one up in a book?" Ash said snottily. "No wait...you'd actually have to read."

"That does it!" Zane tried to grab a hold of Ash and shove him off the boat.

"I said stop!" Peter lunged forward and stepped in between them before they could make contact. "Look, if we're going to win this battle, we all have to be on the same side."

"Hear that, Zane?" Lewis said a bit unkindly. "Same side, means you can't be your dad's puppet anymore."

"I am not his puppet!" Zane shouted, getting very angry. "I am my own person, why can't any of you see that? I'm not my dad!"

"Good." William said coolly. "Cuz if you were, I'd kick your butt."

Quiet old William was the last person that could ever be expected to say something like that. Everyone stopped arguing, forgetting what they'd been fighting about to begin with, and laughed. William couldn't kick a soccer ball never mind anyone's butt.

"I'm sorry, Zane." Lewis apologized when he was finally able to stop laughing. "I shouldn't have said what I said."

"It's alright." Zane forgave him.

"I'm sorry too." Ash apologized.

"Good, let's all make it pax." Peter said, breathing a sigh of relief, which was cut short as the realization that they were almost at Mako dawned on him.

"Where are all the boats?" Lewis wondered aloud. "There should be more people here working to develop it."

"Maybe we're early?" Ash guessed.

"Something's not right." Peter told them, looking anxiously from side to side.

"I don't know if this the best time to bring this up but tonight's a lunar eclipse." Max blurted out.

"Not a good time for astrology, Max." Zane rolled his eyes.

"It's called Astronomy, Zane. And it's important." Emma said.

"That's right, what does a lunar eclipse do you again?" Ash struggled to remember.

"It takes away their tails and powers for twelve hours." Lewis explained. "But only if they're in the moon pool when it happens."

"That's not until tonight and it's six in the morning." Susan reminded them.

"Stop the boat." Peter ordered suddenly.

Max and Lewis grabbed the anchor and threw it over broad. It made a rough jolt which would have knocked Cleo into the water if William hadn't grabbed her before she could fall in.

"Thanks." Cleo said in a shaky voice.

"Don't mention it." William forced a smile.

"So why did we stop the boat?" Zane wanted to know. "We're out in the open, anyone could see us."

"Harrison's setting us up." Peter said, walking slowly over to the edge of the boat. "He must have been expecting us to come."

"What do you think he's got planned?" Cleo asked.

"I think, he's waiting for us to get out of the public sight." Peter told her. "Then he can threaten us. If there's a chance people can see us, he wouldn't want to risk losing his reputation."

"I have an idea." Rikki said. "Susan, Emma, Cleo and me should all swim down into the moon pool and get on the island, through there we can scope out the place then come back here and tell you what we saw."

"And what if Harrison has set traps under the water?" Peter asked, looking down at the blue waves lapping against the side of the boat.

"We'll be careful." Rikki told him, drawing closer to the edge. "We're mermaids we can swim in and out of places really fast, remember?"

"Alright." Peter gave in. "But stick together, be safe, and come right back here."

Rikki nodded and threw herself off the boat into the water.

Cleo kissed Lewis on the lips and gave him a quick hug before diving off the boat head first into the water.

"Be safe, Cleo." Lewis whispered looking down at the circle of ripples she'd just made in the water, trying to hold back the tears forming in his eyes.

Susan rested her head on Peter's shoulder for a moment. "I'll be right back." She pulled away as he planted a kiss on her forehead. With one last look back at everyone on the boat, she grabbed Emma's hand. They nodded and one another, counted to three and leapt off the boat into the cold waves below.

Their tails formed about ten seconds after they landed in the water. With as much speed as they could manage without losing all caution, the four of them swam towards the moon pool.

When they reached the moon pool, they swam in looking up through the water. They thought they could see the vague shape of a person sitting on the rocks looking down at the water.

They couldn't tell who it was until they surfaced. They were not pleased by what they saw. A familiar plump young girl with reddish-brown hair and a sullen expression.

"Charlotte!" Cleo glared at her.

"What are you doing here?" Emma demanded.

Charlotte's eyes widened as if she was afraid of something. "What am I doing here? What are _you_ doing here?" She stood up and started flicking her hands as though she was shooing away a stray dog. "Go, get out of here, now!"

"No way." Rikki retorted. "You're trying to trick us."

"No, I'm not!" Charlotte insisted her voice becoming panicked now. "You have to get out of here while you can!"

"What are you talking about, Charlotte?" Emma asked.

"I don't have time to explain." Charlotte practically bawled. "You have to get out of here now, before it's too..."

Suddenly there was a sharp click.

"...Late." She finished.

"What happened?" Cleo swam down to the underwater entrance of the moon pool. It was now covered by cage-like bars. They were trapped.

"Oh no." Charlotte reached to grab Emma's hand. "Come on, quick, if we can get you dry fast maybe we can get you out of here before..."

Emma pushed her away. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Helping you, I'll explain later." She said rather sharply. "I know you don't like me and I don't like you but if you don't let me help you now..."

"Help us?" Rikki exclaimed. "You? I don't believe it!"

"Me either." Susan told her. "Not after what you and Dr. Denman did to me."

"I know you're in on this." Cleo glared at her. "You're a traitor."

"Yes, but even a traitor may mend." Charlotte said a sort of half smile on her face now. She looked at Susan pleadingly. "Doesn't your brother always say he knew one that did?"

"My brother?" Susan gasped. "How do you know about him?"

"It's a trick." Rikki warned her. "she probably got that from Denman."

"Charlotte? Charlotte where are you? Where'd you go? This isn't funny!" A male voice called from the top of the cave. Suddenly there was the sound of sliding a light, "Oof!" A dark haired boy landed flat on his face.

"Who is that?" Emma whispered to Cleo.

"I don't know." Cleo whispered back, shrinking further into the pool feeling more than a little frightened.

The boy lifted his head. He looked very surprised to see them there. "What are you doing in here?" He demanded. (They weren't sure if his words were directed towards them or Charlotte.)

Susan gaped at him, her mouth hanging slightly open from shock. "Edmund!"


	10. an unsucessful moon pool raid

"Susan!" Edmund got up, brushed the dirt off his slightly torn light brown tights and raced over the to edge of the moon pool. He bent down near the water and threw his arms around her. "I've missed you so much."

Tears fell like rain from their eyes as they clung to one another, neither wanted to let go. Susan couldn't believe she was seeing her little brother again after all these years. "I missed you too, Ed."

Finally they pulled away. Edmund glanced down at her left hand, noticing the thin gold band on her middle finger, a smile spread out across his face from ear to ear. "Well I'll be! He actually managed to find you and marry you."

"Yeah..." Susan admitted with a coy half-smile. "He did."

"That's wonderful!" Edmund beamed at her.

"Um, hello?" Charlotte stamped her foot on the ground. "Can we do the whole family bonding thing later?"

"Shut up, Charlotte." Rikki told her.

"Alright, fine." Charlotte glowered at them and folded her arms across her chest. "Stay here and get caught by Mr. Bennett. See if I care."

"She's right." Edmund said, reaching to lift his sister out of the water. "We have got to get you out of here now."

Rikki pulled Susan back down into the moon pool, out of Edmund's grasp.

Edmund frowned at her. "Don't do that." He reached for her again Rikki grabbed Susan's wrist and pulled her further away from the edge so that if Edmund really wanted to get her out, he'd have to jump into the water.

"Rikki, what are you doing?" Susan demanded, yanking her wrist back.

"We can't trust him." Rikki protested. "He's working with Charlotte who's working with Mr. Bennett. He'll betray us all."

"He would never do that." Susan insisted, looking up at her beloved little brother, remembering when he was small enough to dress in doll's clothing. There were few people in the world she trusted as deeply as she trusted Edmund.

"Of course I wouldn't." Edmund assured them.

"Says the boy who betrayed his whole family for Turkish Delight." Rikki blurted out before she could help herself. She hadn't meant to be cruel but she was so frightened and nervous. That mixed with her impulsive nature caused her to say those words without thinking.

"Rikki!" Emma scolded.

Cleo didn't know what to say so she remained silent. On the one hand, she could see where Rikki was coming from. Anyone who was working along with Charlotte couldn't possibly be a good person. And yet, that kind just king with a dark past that Susan had told them about couldn't be bad. He just couldn't be. How could the boy who'd faithfully kept his sister's secret, the boy who'd loved and waited two years for Julia, the boy who'd rejoiced over his sister's happy outcome in marriage, how could be possibly be evil? But why was he with Charlotte? It seemed almost as if-bizarre as it was-that the two were friends.

Edmund looked like he'd been slapped across the face. "I'm sorry about that, okay? How many times do I have to say it?"

"It's alright, Ed." Susan said softly. "She didn't mean it."

"She better not have." Emma muttered.

"What was that?" Rikki asked her rather sharply.

"Nothing." Emma shrugged her shoulders.

"But what's going on?" Cleo blurted out, unable to stand the confusion one second longer. "Why are we stuck in here? How do you two know each other?"

"We don't have time to explain right now." Charlotte snapped. "Just let us help you out of there before Mr. Bennett gets back and sees you."

Susan swam over to Edmund who pulled her out into the dry rock. "Towels, Charlotte, now!" he wiggled his fingers in her direction.

"I don't have the towels." Charlotte told him. "The goat had them."

"Goat?" Rikki raised her eyebrows as Edmund leaned over and started to lift Cleo out of the moon pool. "What goat?"

"For the last time," Edmund huffed. "Mr. Tumnus is not a goat."

"Have you seen his legs?" Charlotte pointed out.

"He's a faun!" Edmund told her. "They all have legs like that."

"Whatever." Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Where is the go- I mean, faun anyway?"

"I thought he was with you." Edmund said. He was now trying to lift Emma out of the moon pool but her tail kept sliding down back into it because of a large bed off moss growing on that side of the rocks.

"Great." Charlotte huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "We lost the goat man. This is all your fault!"

"My fault?" Edmund snapped at her. "How is it my fault? You're the one who didn't stick to the plan."

"Well it's a good thing I didn't. Otherwise, they would have been trapped in here until Mr. Bennett arrived." Charlotte defended herself.

"You know instead of jawing at me like that, you could help me get them out." Edmund said, finally getting Emma out of the water with one final lift up.

"I'm not lifting Rikki out of there she hates me, she'll boil my hand right off." Charlotte glared at her.

"I can get myself out." Rikki snapped, pulling herself up out of the water. "And I swear if either of you are working with Mr. Bennett, I'll stream dry you right into the next dimension." She shook a fist at them.

"Don't threaten my brother," Susan told her angrily.

"It's alright, Su." Edmund tried to calm her down.

"No it's not." Susan insisted. "No one talks about my baby brother like that."

"Aw, how sweet." Charlotte pretend-gagged. She clapped her hands franticly. "Chop chop, let's get a move on shall we?"

"Shut up." Rikki sneered, as her tail-the only one yet to completely dry, started to vanish, her legs appearing in its place.

"Ah, my favorite two workers." Mr. Bennett had climbed down the into the cave somehow managing not to make any noise. He put one arm around Charlotte and the other around Edmund.

"What did I say about touching me?" Edmund lifted Harrison's arm off of him like it was a pile of dog poo.

He took his arm from around him. "Sorry mate."

"Same goes for me." Charlotte shoved his arm away from her.

"It's great that your long lost cousin from England was so willing to help us out." Harrison Bennett smiled at Charlotte. "I don't know not sure if I should smack you for telling him about the mermaids or kiss your head for getting me another worker."

"Don't kiss my head." Charlotte told him flatly, trying to sound like her former unkind self but failing just slightly. "just give me my paycheck."

"Not yet." Harrison told her. "Let's just get started." He looked over at the four mermaids, displeased to see they all had their legs, not their tails. "Why aren't they in the moon pool?"

"They just climbed out." Edmund shrugged.

"Just climbed out?" Mr. Harrison walked over slowly, approaching them. Without warning, he shoved Susan back into the moon pool.

Edmund took a step forward but Charlotte pulled him back and shook her head. She whispered something to him and he nodded.

"So, Edmund..." Mr. Bennett suddenly winked at him.

"Wait..." Edmund gasped, realizing that he'd told Harrison that his name was Joe Watsford. How could he possibly know his real name?

"You really didn't think I'd fall for that fake story about you being Charlotte's long lost cousin did you?" He laughed so hard that his shoulders started shaking. "I knew you were trying to set me up, so I set you up." He reached into his pocket, pulled out his gun and pointed it at Edmund.

"How did you find out?" Edmund demanded, taking a step forward.

Harrison smirked at him. "Linda, come in here please."

Dr. Denman suddenly walked down into the cave. "Hello girls." She grinned at them. "Thought I lost my memory didn't you? Thought you'd never see me again? Big mistake."

"We'll see about that." Rikki started to clench her hand.

"None of that." Harrison warned her, waving his gun. "I'll shoot a hole right through your friend's brother if you don't stop right this second."

Susan looked over at Edmund and then back at Rikki. "Rikki, please don't."

"Go ahead, Rikki." Edmund said bravely. "I'll be fine."

"Don't do it." Susan insisted.

"Smart mermaid." Harrison gave her a cold smile.

"But not so smart that she didn't fall for that stupid article I had planted in the paper." Dr. Denman laughed.

"Stop right now." Charlotte ran over shoving Edmund into the moon pool so quickly that Harrison didn't have time to fire off a shot.

"Why did you do that for?" Edmund asked, treading the water to keep his head above the surface.

"Because of this." Charlotte pulled a key seemly out of no where and tossed it to Edmund.

Dr. Denman felt the place in her pocket where her key to the half-automatic bars that also could be opened manually if need be. "Charlotte!"

"Oops." Charlotte pretended to look sorry. "Did I accidentally steal your key and drop it into the moon pool?" She shrugged her shoulders, "My bad."

Edmund was already swimming under with the key forcing it into the lock to get it open. As soon as the girls heard the click, they dived in knowing it was their only way out. Hoping she could still hold her breath for a while even though she was no longer a mermaid, Charlotte jumped in too. She knew all too well that now that she had openly betrayed Denman and Bennett, she wouldn't he safe with them.

"Stop them!" Harrison ordered.

"No problem." Dr. Denman pulled the automatic remote out of her lab coat pocket and pressed the 'CLOSE' button.

Rikki and Cleo were already on the other side but Charlotte, Emma, Susan, and Edmund were not. The door started to close. Slowly at first but then faster. Knowing the only possible way for them to escape was for that door to stay open, Edmund grabbed onto the bars and tried to hold his breath and keep them up like a gate. It hurt his hands terribly but there was nothing he could do about that.

Susan and Charlotte started to swim out. When they were half way out of the gate, Harrison realized what was happening, pointed his gun at Edmund's leg under the water and let a bullet fly. It struck rather high up in the leg just as Mr. Bennett had intended it to. The sudden pain made him let go of the gate and he started to fall down under the water.

Susan couldn't save him because she was trying to help Charlotte to the surface before she drowned and the gate behind Edmund was now closed anyway. He was trapped in the moon pool and she was now locked on the other side of it. She saw blood in the water and knew that if they didn't a move on sharks would show up and attack.

Breathless, terrified, and panicked, Rikki, Cleo, Susan, and Charlotte reached the surface of the water a good distance away form the blood.

"Edmund!" Susan cried now that she could speak again. She knew he probably couldn't hear her but she cried anyway. He might for all she knew be dead now. All that blood had gushed out of his leg into the water...her body started shaking with sobs.

"Let's get her back to the boat." Rikki said, grabbing one of her arms while Cleo grabbed the other.

"Wait." she gasped. "Where's Emma?"

"She was behind me." Charlotte realized. "She must have gotten caught in the moon pool."

"Em..." Cleo whispered, tears for her friend sliding down her face. She'd known her even longer than she'd known Rikki. She used to help her train for swimming. And now she was trapped at the mercy of Dr. Denman and Mr. Harrison.

On the boat, Peter looked anxiously over the edge. The girls should have been back by now.

"What do you think's taking them so long?" Ash asked the lapping waves below the boat.

"I don't know, something must be wrong." Lewis reached for his water mask and flippers. "Maybe I should..."

"No, look!" Max pointed to four female heads sticking out of the water in the distance. "Here they come."

"Thanks be to the Lion." Peter sighed.

A thin white hand that Lewis assumed belonged to Emma or Rikki reached the side of the boat first. He leaned over and pulled her on boat. Seeing who it was, he let out a gasp of surprise. "Charlotte?"

"Hello Lewis." She said weakly, collapsing on one of the wooden seats.

"What in the world..." Zane helped Rikki up onto the boat.

Louise and Julia lifted Cleo on board while Peter helped Susan who seemed to be in some sort of shock.

She threw herself into her husband's arms sobbing.

He stroked her wet hair. "Shh, it's alright..."

"No it's not." Susan cried into his chest. "You don't know what happened..."

"Where's Emma?" Ash asked them.

"She didn't make it through." Rikki told them.

"Through what?" Max asked.

"Susan, what happened?" Peter whispered, knowing it had to be something terrible.

"Charlotte, is that blood?" Lewis exclaimed pointing to dark spot on her shirt. She had been the last one out before the gate closed which had been right when Edmund had been shot, she'd accidentally gotten a little bit of his blood on her shirt that hadn't washed off.

Charlotte nodded, not knowing what else to say or do.

"Oh my god." Was all Lewis could think to say now.

"What happened?" Ash need to know.

"Ask her." Rikki pointed at Charlotte.

"Rikki, it's not her fault." Cleo felt strange standing up for Charlotte like that but knew it was the truth.

"Wasn't it?" Rikki glared at her. "If former mermaid big mouth over there hadn't blabbed to Denman and Zane's idiot father in the first place, none of this would be happening."

"I'm sorry." Charlotte said thrusting her face into her hands, realizing at last the pain that she had caused. How could she have done this? What would that Lion think of her now? What would her grandmother say?

"I wish that were enough." Rikki started to cry thinking of Emma and Susan's brother, not even knowing if either of them had lived or died. "I really do."

Back at the moon pool, Emma lifted an unconscious-still bleeding-Edmund out of the water and onto the dry rock. Dr. Denman and Mr. Bennett were no where to be found.

As soon as Emma had set him down safely, She raced over to the land entrance, hoping to get out and maybe get help for the boy with bullet in his leg. But she quickly found out the reason Denman and Bennett had gone. They'd put bars up there too. She and Edmund were completely trapped in the moon pool cave.


	11. removing the bullet

After the initial shock of being hopelessly trapped wore off, a terrible new thought entered Emma's head as she glanced at Edmund who laid motionless on the ground she'd placed him on nearly five minutes ago. He wasn't waking up.

What if dies? Emma thought panic stricken. She didn't know what to do for him. What if he was already dead? Knowing she had to do something, Emma crawled over and placed her fingers on Edmund's wrist to feel for a pulse. There was a pulse alright. That meant he was still alive. At least for now.

Unfortunately, the pulse was somewhat weak and he wasn't actually breathing. If she didn't do something, she might lose him any second. Thankfully, Emma was still able to recall the CPR classes she'd taken almost five years ago when after a rather nasty accident a swimmer had nearly died because no one-not even the coach-knew what to do after the person had been half-drowned. After that the board of health had 'requested' that everyone on the swim team take the class.

"Alright." Emma said aloud trying to calm her nerves as she bent down beside him and pushed on his chest. "Come on, breathe..." She looked at his mouth. _Oh god,_ she realized that she'd forgotten that CPR required actually breathing into the injured person's mouth. She cringed for a moment at the thought that her lips would actually have to touch his.

"It's alright, Emma, you can do this..." She told herself, giving his chest one final push before leaning in.

Her lips where almost on his when his eyes opened and he blurted out in a soft weak mutter, "What are you doing?"

Emma turned rather red in the face. "Thank goodness, you're alright."

"Please tell me you were not just about to kiss me." Edmund muttered managing a little bit of a laugh in spite of the pain he was still in from the bullet in his leg. "Honestly, I know I'm a dashing young king and all that but we hardly know each other."

"Ew, no!" Emma looked horrified. "I was just trying to get you breathing again. I already have a boyfriend, his name's Ash."

"It's alright, Emma." Edmund assured her. "I was just teasing you."

"Now's not the best time." Emma told him. "We're completely trapped in here. They've locked all the entrances."

"By the Lion's mane...my leg is killing me." Edmund groaned as the searing pain shot up through his leg to his waist, trying to shift his leg to the left a little but finding it impossible to do so. "What happened? Where are the others?"

"They made it through." Emma explained. "We didn't."

"At least they're alright." Edmund managed a small smile which turned into a cringe.

"I can't believe Mr. Bennett did that to you." Emma whispered, bending over to examine his leg. "I've know him since I was three years old. I knew the guy was stuck up but this..." Her voice trailed off.

"How bad is it?" Edmund asked her.

"Pretty bad." Emma admitted. "I was hoping the bullet just grazed you or something but it's in there pretty deep."

"Any chance you're a licensed surgeon?" Edmund asked only half-joking.

Emma shook her head. "Sorry."

Edmund, tired of laying on his back, forced himself to sit up.

"Maybe I could get it out with tweezers..." Emma said doubtfully. "I just don't want to make it any worse."

"Where are you going to get tweezers?" Edmund asked, looking very confused.

Emma pulled a mini travel first aid kit out of her pocket. "Always come prepared."

"You're one of those people who count how many times they chew each mouthful they eat, aren't you?" Edmund asked.

"That's just good health sense." Emma blushed, felling very prudish. "We're getting off the subject."

"I'm trying to ease the tension." Edmund explained.

"You're making it worse." Emma told him sharply, as she pulled out the mini tweezers and scooted closer to his leg. "But if you're so set on talking, you might as well tell me what you were doing here to begin with."

"Alright, alright." Edmund sighed, giving in. "Well there I was in Aslan's country, I'd just finished talking to Gracie, who's very nice by the way..."

"I've heard." Emma nodded. "Can you move your leg a little closer? I can't quite see the wound."

Edmund cringed again and moved his leg closer to Emma and her tweezers. "There, is that better?"

"Yes, thank you, go on." Emma looked at the bloody wound and willed herself not to vomit. It was such a gruesome sight.

"Anyway, then I ran into Mr. Tumnus who said...OW!"

Mr. Tumnus did not say, "Ow!" what had happened was that Emma had just gotten a grip of the bullet with her tweezers and misjudged how deep in it actually was, thus pulling it with too much force.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry." Emma told him, wanting to put a hand to her mouth but not being able to due to the fact that both her hands had blood on them now.

"It's alright." Edmund lied thinking that he hadn't been in this much pain since the white witch had stabbed him in the stomach with her wand. "Is it almost out?"

"Barely half way." Emma confessed.

"Great." Edmund whimpered before going on with the story. "Anyway, Tumnus said he had the feeling that he and I were both needed at the professor's house, which still exists in Aslan's country of course and I went there with him (the professor was out but we knew he wouldn't mind) and we were having a meal when we suddenly saw a girl standing in the room with us. She was pale and frightened looking. Honestly, I didn't much like the looks of her but I felt concerned for her all the same. I just had the feeling she needed help of some sort."

"I've almost got it." Emma told Edmund now, as she got a good grip on the bullet. "Two things, one, grab onto my hand and squeeze it on the count of three. Two, after I get this out it's going to bleed like crazy, don't worry, I'm going to bandage it up right away, okay?"

Edmund didn't bother to tell her that he'd seen plenty of blood in battles before and wasn't particularly scared of the stuff. He just nodded and grabbed into her hand.

"One." Emma started. "Two..."

Edmund tightened his grip knowing she was about to yank the bullet out.

"Three!" Emma pulled as hard as she could and the bullet flew out of his flesh, slipped away from the tweezers and bounced into the moon pool with a _clink_ and a _plop._

Edmund let out a scream. Emma quickly tied a bandage around his leg.

"Tighter." Edmund groaned. "You have to do it tighter than that or it wont clot."

Emma nodded and made the knot as tight as she could.

"Ouch, not that tight!" Edmund snapped as the pain struck him like a punch in the guts.

"Sorry, want me to loosen it?" Emma offered.

"No!" Edmund blurted out. "I mean, no thank you, just leave it."

"So what happened?" Emma asked eagerly awaiting the rest of his story.

"Well, I tried to talk to her and she opened her mouth to answer but I guess she was in too much shock to say anything and as soon as she seemed stable enough to speak, she vanished. Just like that. So Tumnus and I talked it over and decided to speak to Aslan about it, but as it turns out we never reached him because as soon as we opened the door to leave the room, it turned into a glass door and we were at someone's house in this world the world I'd long been declared dead in and Tumnus had never even been to. Then I noticed that we were on some one's back patio, and there was the girl who'd appeared to us back in Aslan's country, floating on one of those inflatable rafts in her pool. When she saw us she screamed and fell into the water. Then she climbed out of the pool, she saw Tunmus's legs and screamed again. I suppose that might have been a bit scary to her but we didn't want anyone to hear her screaming and come out so I ran over and put my hand on her mouth and dragged her behind a bush."

Emma let out a light chuckle.

Edmund laughed a little himself and then went on. "So then we got her to calm down and tell us that her name was Charlotte Watsford. At first she wouldn't tell us anything else but once I mentioned her grandmother Gracie, the trouble was to get her to stop talking. She told us everything we needed to know. She also confessed to a lot. Such as getting Susan locked up in Denman's lab and all that, I don't think she would have spoken so freely if she'd known that I was Susan Pevensie's brother which I finally gave in and told her I was. I also assured her that Tumnus was not a scary monster and that he was one of the gentlest people she was ever likely to meet. After that she told us that she'd been working to destroy Mako along with Mr. Bennett until Aslan had spoken with her and changed her mind. So we came up with a sort of idea that if I pretended to be her long lost cousin and work for Mr. Bennett, that we could keep messing things up by 'accident' until he got fed up and gave up on his plans to develop Mako."

"Was it working?" Emma asked.

"Sort of." Edmund told her. "We called to cancel a lot of his orders from workers and stuff like that and then acted like we didn't know what was going on."

"What went wrong?" Emma asked.

"First Charlotte came down here, she wasn't supposed to, she and Tumnus (Harrison hadn't seen Tumnus yet and I thought we could make him look sort of scary in the right lighting) were supposed to scare Mr. Bennett off the island, we had this whole plan worked out-I wont bother to explain it because it doesn't matter now-but Charlotte wouldn't listen. She said that you, Susan, Rikki, and Cleo would get caught in the moon pool if she didn't go down and turn off all the traps. I told her she didn't have time and to go along with the plan before Mr. Bennett's breakfast break ended and she told me she would. But she lied and went down here anyway and well...that's when everything went wrong..."

"I see." Emma said finally.

Edmund shook his head. "I don't know what we'll do now. Unless of course, Tumnus hears our muffled screams for help and gets us out of here, but then again, now that I've see what Harrison can do, I don't want Tumnus going anywhere near him. The nasty creep will probably turn this into the Faun and Mermaid museum if anything else goes wrong."

"This is bad." Emma said knowing it was an understatement.

"Oh yeah." Edmund nodded in agreement. "Very bad."

Back on the boat, Susan told Peter about Edmund.

"What? Ed? Here?" Peter asked in disbelief.

"Yes, he's here and possibly dead now thanks to her." Rikki growled, glaring at Charlotte.

"Me?" Charlotte glared right back.

A full out argument would have started if Peter hadn't frowned at both of them in very direct, start-that-again-and-you'll-both-regret-it sort of way.

"We have to find him." Julia said firmly gazing out at the horizon.

"We will." Peter promised her.

It was then that they all realized that from that moment, on they were fighting for more than just Mako now. The tides had changed and this last battle was sure to be epic.


	12. The battle begins

"Emma?" Edmund glanced over at her with an expression that strongly implied he had an idea.

"Yes?" Emma wondered what he could have possibly come up with.

"Whatever happened to the key?" He asked.

"What key?" Emma looked confused.

"The one Charlotte threw into the water." Edmund reminded her. "The one we used to get the gate open to begin with."

"I don't know." Emma told him.

"You don't think it could still be at the bottom of the moon pool do you?" Edmund looked a little hopeful at the thought.

"I'll swim down and check." Emma dived into the water. After her tail formed she flapped it hard to get to the very bottom of the pool. Looking around she could find nothing but mud and sea sand. No signs of the key. Where could it have gotten off to?

Suddenly she saw a flash of silver from under the mud. Swimming towards it, Emma realized with dismay that it was on the other side of the gate, almost completely buried in the deepest part of the mud. It must have slipped in there when Edmund got shot and had to let go of both the lock and the gate itself. There was no hope of getting that key now.

She swam up and surfaced.

"Did you find it?" Edmund asked eager for her answer.

Emma shook her head and tried not to cry. She thought of telling him the truth. That she could see the key and that it was hopelessly out of her reach and served no real purpose other than to tease them with freedom they couldn't get to. But if she did that he might forget himself and jump in to find it. He might mess up his leg even more. He might cut himself or worse. and if the bandage got wet and fell off before the wound fully clotted, he might bleed all over the pool and the sharks might attack the gate.

"I'm just not sure this is right." Emma heard a strangely familiar voice say from the top of the cave entrance.

"What could be wrong? Harrison doesn't want to hurt them, it'll be like a wildlife preserve." This time the voice was male, the voice it was answering had been female.

"Well I still don't know what to make of all this." The female voice sighed. "I mean, 'Mermaids'? Honestly, when he first brought it up, I thought he'd lost his mind."

"Well, why don't we go and see for ourselves then?" The male voice suggested. There was the sound of jingling keys.

"Wont we get in trouble?" The female voice asked.

"We work for him and we are helping sponsor this, we have every right to see these said mermaids for ourselves." The male voice retorted.

"Mermaids?" The female voice said. "No dear, didn't you hear? Harrison lost three of them. There's only one left."

"Did they die?"

"No, no, the gate popped open and they got away, he'll find them and bring them back. Not that I'm fully convinced keeping such creatures locked up is a good idea."

"But what if they're dangerous?" The male voice pointed out. "Harrison says they are."

"Well I guess we'll see for ourselves wont we?"

They started to unlock the top gate.

Emma quickly ducked back under the water. Peering up through the ripples, she saw the very last people she would ever have expected. Her own parents.

They spotted Edmund right away.

"Who are you and what are you doing in here?" Mr. Gilbert demanded rather harshly.

"Oh stop it, can't you see he's hurt?" Mrs. Gilbert rushed to side, eyeing the bandaged wound anxiously. "Are you alright dear? How did you get in here?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Edmund shrugged. "But the short version is that your boss-the lovely Mr. Bennett-shot me in the leg and locked me in here."

"Mr. Bennett wouldn't do that." Mr. Gilbert protested.

Emma couldn't take it any longer. She came up to the surface and blurted out, "He's telling the truth, dad."

"Emma?" Mr. Gilbert ran over to the moon pool. "What on earth..."

Mrs. Gilbert noticed her tail. "Oh my god!"

"Wait, these are your parents?" Edmund's eyebrows shot up with deep surprise. "Your parents work for Harrison?"

"I know, I can't believe it either." Emma's voice was nearly a whisper. "Mum, Dad...how could you?"

"Sweetheart." Her mother stretched out her arms to her daughter. "We didn't know."

"But what if it wasn't me?" Emma started sobbing. She couldn't help it. "What if it was some other mermaid? you would have let Harrison hurt her? I had more faith in you than that, I really did."

"But how did this happen?" Mr. Gilbert reached for his daughter's hand but she pulled it away.

"It's the moon pool." Emma explained still looking betrayed and frightened. "I'm not sure how it works or why but it turned me into a mermaid. And it's not just me. Cleo, Rikki, and Susan are mermaids too. Charlotte used to be one. So did Miss Chatham."

"I can't believe this." Mr. Gilbert said, helping Edmund to his feet. "Let's get you both out of here."

"How do I know you wont hand me or my friends over to Mr. Bennett if he asks you to?" Emma wailed as her mother tried to help her out of the moon pool.

"You're our daughter and we love you, we wouldn't never do anything to hurt you." Mrs. Gilbert told her, tears coming into her own eyes now. "You should have told us. All this time, you've kept it to yourself...suffering alone..." She reached out and stroked the side of Emma's face. This time she didn't pull away.

"Mum..." She sobbed weakly.

"Come on, Emma." Edmund said softly. "Let's go, we can trust them. They aren't traitors, I should know."

Emma smiled a little through her tears and came out of the moon pool allowing her mother to dry her off with her sweater.

Her legs came back and they helped her and Edmund climb out.

"Do you hear shouting?" Mr. Gilbert asked as they stood blinking in the light of the setting sun.

"Yes, I do..." Mrs. Gilbert looked over at her husband with a puzzled expression. "What's going on?"

"Must be the battle." Emma said softly, more to herself, than to her parents.

"Battle?" Mr. Gilbert raised an eye brow at her.

"My friends and I are fighting to save Mako." Emma explained, feeling rather strange talking about this with her parents.

"You mean like a protest?" Mrs. Gilbert blinked in confusion.

"No, I mean a real fight." Emma felt her checks flush as she said it but knew it was time they learned the truth.

They walked closer and closer to the shouting until they came to where the battle was. Quickly the four of them ducked behind the tallest rocks they could find.

Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert could hardly believe their eyes. It was even a little shocking to Emma and Edmund who'd pretty much known something like this was bound to be happening.

Rikki was fighting some of Mr. Bennett's workers with her bow and arrows. Her arrows had mostly missed their marks and her quiver was empty so she was now in the process of clubbing anyone who came to close to her upside the head with the edge of the bow itself.

Charlotte was trying to kick Dr. Denman who'd gotten a grip on her ankle and wouldn't let go.

"Charlotte you belong on our side." Dr. Denman protested tightening her grip until Charlotte cringed in pain. "Don't you want revenge?"

"Revenge is over rated." Charlotte struggled to get away from her. Lewis ran over and pulled Charlotte away from Denman.

"Lewis...dear..." Denman tried to sound sweet. "I thought you wanted to be a real scientist. Don't you remember?"

"Get a life, Denman." Lewis told her as he helped Charlotte to her feet.

"Thanks Lewis." Charlotte smiled at him.

"What are friends for?" Lewis shrugged, smiling at her for the first time in a while.

"Friends? Really?" Charlotte asked, kicking a worker out of the way while she spoke.

"Yeah, but that's it. I mean it this time, friends. Just friends" Lewis said firmly.

"Can you please have the 'what are we' talk later?" Peter protested, running up to them and thrusting a bow and arrows into Charlotte's hands. "I don't think now's the best time."

"No, it's alright." Charlotte ignored Peter and went on. "I understand. You love Cleo, I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about it."

"You'll find someone someday, Charlotte." Lewis said kindly.

"Only if she's actually alive to do so." Zane shouted at them. "Look behind you!"

"AH!" Charlotte screamed at the top of her lungs when she noticed someone was about to grab her waist. She grabbed one of the arrows Peter had handed her and smacked the man across the face with it. It did nothing but stun him long enough for her to get away and the only mark it left was a rather light one on his right brow and a couple of little cuts on the lower cheek.

"Someone has to teach her the difference between an arrow and a girl scout knife." Ash said to Rikki as he slapped someone with the flat of his sword.

"Right after they teach you the difference between a sword and a whacking stick." Rikki muttered, glancing at her empty quiver feeling rather at a lost.

"Rikki, catch!" Charlotte tossed her own quiver of arrows to her.

Rikki frowned. The last person she wanted the arrows from was Charlotte but there was no way around it now. She nodded at her gratefully if only for that moment, and start shooting off arrows again.

"Where's Cleo?" Ash asked suddenly realizing that she wasn't standing at her place on one of the rocks shooting her own arrows.

"Cleo?" Lewis called desperately looking for his girlfriend. "Cleo, where are you?"

"Cleo?" Charlotte called as she leapt out of the reached of Harrison himself and fell in the mud right on her butt.

Zane ran over and helped her to her feet before starting to call for Cleo himself. "Cleo?"

Susan stopped fighting and started calling for her as well. "Cleo?"

At that moment, Cleo was actually running away from one of Denman's workers and one of Bennett's workers who were both chasing her through the woods. She'd dropped her bow into a quicksand-like swamp by mistake and now had nothing to shoot her arrows with. And now she ran through the hardest bushes and brambles trying to loose them. Finally she managed to crawl into a rather large clearing.

She banged into someone.

It was without a doubt the strangest looking person she'd ever laid eyes one before. He had curly rather dark hair and two little horns sticking out of his head. Where his feet should have been where hoofs and his legs were furry and goat-like.

Of course being half fish a good amount of the time she knew she was hardly one to talk but he was still so bizarre that she couldn't help herself but scream and jump behind a tree.

The goat-man didn't seem any less frightened of her than she was of him. He screamed and hid too. He thought she was rather pretty and he liked the looks of her very much but he didn't know who this strange girl could be. She might work for Harrison and Denman for all he knew.

He peeked at her from behind his tree and then quickly hid his face again.

That simple act was so harmless and even child-like that Cleo no longer felt as scared of him as she'd been a moment ago. She took a step out from behind her own tree and started to approach him.

He cautiously starting walking towards her.

"Were you hiding from me?" Cleo laughed a little as she spoke.

"No, no." The man shook his head. "I just um...didn't want to scare you, that's all."

Cleo let out another friendly laugh. She liked this fellow quite a bit already. "What are you?" She eyed his legs.

"I'm a faun." He told her smiling his friendliest smile. "My name is Master Tumnus. I'm a trusted advisor to High King Peter and all the rest of them at Cair Paravel."

"I'm Cleo." Cleo reached out and shook his hand.

"Human, I presume?" Tumnus said.

"Only some of the time." Cleo told him. "I'm a mermaid whenever I touch water."

"Oh, you must be one of Charlotte's friends." Tumnus said,

"Not exactly." Cleo shrugged her shoulders. "It's complicated."

"Yes, I heard." He nodded, not knowing what else to say.

Cleo looked up at the sky it was almost dark now. The sun would be gone soon. "I'd better get back to the battle."

"Battle, Lady Cleo?" Tumnus asked looking very confused.

Cleo laughed at the thought of being called, 'Lady Cleo' by such a strange person. Then quickly sobered up and explained the situation to him. "We're not doing well." She admitted. "We might lose."


	13. Emerald Coloured Eclipse

As the darkness descended on Mako Island, everyone was engulfed in the feeling that this was the very last time the sun would ever set on Mako. It was never to rise above those tall lovely almost other worldly trees again. The light had left this strange half-world for ever and all whom had ever loved it, could feel this in the very core of their hearts filling them with dread and thoughts like, 'I do hope it isn't really true'.

And yet through all this, they kept fighting. Emma had joined in after making Edmund promise he would not leave her parents side and would only watch the fight, not join in. He of course had protested this greatly but then at last had no choice but to give in.

When they ran out of arrows and several swords had broken, Zane reached for the walkie-talkie they'd hidden behind a bush and called into it for Max, William, Louise and Julia to be ready to meet them with more weapons at the shoreline. But things did not go well and they were led far off the shore, much closer to the moon pool cave than any of them liked.

Worried sick about their friends, Max, Louise, William, and Julia came ashore to look for them.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" William asked nervously. "Peter was very clear that we were not to leave the boat."

"Well, I'm going." Julia insisted stubbornly. "I just don't think I should go by myself is all."

"Oh, alright." Louise gave in, climbing off the boat and following her up the sandy beach slope. "But we have to stay a good distance away from the battle. We're far too old to fight."

"Wait, come back!" William called after them. "Can't we get a vote on this?"

Louise and Julia were already out of earshot (either that or they were flat out ignoring them) and kept on walking.

"I really don't know how you put up with them when they were young." William said as he and Max climbed out of the boat and fast-walked after the former mermaids.

"It was never dull." Max said dryly, inhaling deeply, struggling to keep up.

"Julia, slow down." William pleaded, after quietly following them for nearly a mile. "My feet can't take this anymore."

Julia turned around to speak to him but whatever she was going to say was long lost because before she could get a word out, she lost her balance and fell in a hollow spot in a nearby bush.

"Julia!" Max whisper-shouted.

"Julia are you alright?" Louise asked, her voice loaded with concern and deep fear.

Julia didn't answer. She sat wide-eyed unable to tear her eyes from the person who's lap she just landed next to. He looked just like...no, it couldn't be! It just couldn't...could it? But it was. It was him.

"It's you." Julia whispered softly, reaching out to touch his face.

Edmund moved away from her. He was rather startled. He was alone in the bush because Mr. Gilbert had a bladder problem and couldn't hold his pee one second longer. He'd gone off to pee and gotten lost and Mrs. Gilbert had gone to find him. Edmund had been waiting for them for nearly fifteen minutes now. The battle had moved on and he wanted to follow to see how they were doing but he couldn't get up without help. His leg hurt too much. And now there was some strange old lady gazing at him. She seemed sort of familiar though he wasn't sure from where.

"Um...Hullo?" Edmund looked very uncomfortable.

"Edmund Pevensie!" Julia slapped his arm and glared at him. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Julia!" He gasped. "You...you're...you..."

Julia blushed and glanced down. "Old now, I know."

"I was going to say even more beautiful than I remembered but if you want to go with old, it's fine by me, just don't hit me again." He rubbed his arm and smiled at her playfully.

"Oh, Ed!" Julia hugged him tightly accidentally jolting his leg.

"Ouch." Edmund groaned.

Julia noticed his leg. "Oh my god, you're hurt! What happened?"

"Mr. Bennett shot me." Edmund told her.

"Ed..." Julia stroked the arm she'd slapped a moment ago. "I could kill him for doing that to you."

"Julia, why didn't you ever come back?" Edmund whispered, asking the question he'd been longing to ask for years. "I waited two years for you. I loved you so much...I had so much I wanted to tell you, to share with you...and you left me..."

"I'm so sorry." Julia told him, tears sliding down her face. "I was scared."

"Scared of what?" Edmund asked gently.

"Of telling you the truth." Julia explained. "I was a mermaid just like your sister, I was so scared you'd betray me."

"I would never do that." Edmund assured her. "Didn't you know that?"

"Deep down, I always have. I just couldn't come back...I'm so sorry." Julia told him.

"Julia, who are you talking to?" Louise stuck her head in the bush.

"Louise, I would like you to meet, Edmund." She introduced them.

William stuck his head in. "Oh look. it's Phyllis's brother!"

"Where?" Max climbed into the bush behind them. "Who's Phyllis?"

Edged closer and closer to the moon pool, both sides of the battle felt a strange tremor of deep fear. Something was about to happen. They just didn't know what.

They only light they had to fight by now was that of the bright moon which was so bizarrely big that it seemed almost full though it was not. The light pouring down from it was silver-like and eerie.

Suddenly everyone let out a collective gasp.

Not sure what was going on, Peter jerked up his head and looked to the sky and saw it. The ellipse was started. A dark circle was sliding over the moon in a graceful manner that seemed almost like a dance.

Cleo and Tumnus who were now close to the land entrance of the moon pool glance down into it and caught a glimpse of the blue water bubbling up.

It was just like the last eclipse Cleo had seen when she, Rikki, and Emma had given up their powers for twelve hours under the mistaken impression that it was to be forever. Now though it became different from anything any of them had ever seen before. It turned more green than blue and it started to flash. The flashes were almost as bright as the sun but with a very different sort of hue. They grew brighter first it was very much like someone was turning on and off one of those coloured flashlights. Then it was like fire works. Then finally like emerald green lightening shooting from the deepest parts of the pool and cave. It seemed to be powered by the strange eclipse itself if that were possible.

The land entrance suddenly slid. Tumnus had to grab Cleo and pull her out of the way before she fell in. It grew taller and taller until it became a sort of arched doorway with the bright green flashes coming out of it. Beautiful as it was, it was not an appealing sort of doorway, rather it was very frightening and everyone struggled to steer clear of it.

The winds grew stronger blowing out any fires be they natural, or one's that Rikki was making to help their already slim chances of winning the battle.

At first they assumed it was coming from Cleo and then looking at her panic-stricken face and her arms which were tightly pressed to her sides, realized that it wasn't.

"What's happening?" Dr. Denman screamed to Harrison.

"I don't know." He shouted back. "But whatever it is, it doesn't want us, it wants the mermaids and those others that follow them."

While they spoke, Cleo was struggling to line a slightly bent arrow on her bow string. Looking out from her place in the rocks, she saw three of Denman's workers carrying something. No, someone. The person was struggling kicking and fighting.

"Lewis!" Cleo called.

"Cleo." He looked up at her just as the men hurled him into the glowing cave. Another bright unworldly flash came through it and somehow Cleo knew it meant he was gone.

Tears and snot slid down her face. "Even if I can't stop crying." She told herself, pulling her face away from the bow string. "I wont get the bow wet and make things worse, I wont."

Charlotte came running up to her. "Cleo, where's Lewis? I lost him back there when he was fighting..."

"He's gone." Cleo sobbed. "They threw him into that." She lifted a finger and pointed it at the magically formed archway.

Charlotte began to cry now too. "This is all my fault."

"What a nice mess you've made of things." Laughed Dr. Denman, coming up behind them with the three workers who'd just thrown poor Lewis into the unknown. They grabbed her by the waist and started pulling her towards the archway.

Cleo tried to stop them but was shoved off the rock she stood and rolled several feet down. She probably would have been killed if she hadn't landed on top of Ash, whom she accidentally knocked face first into a bed of moss.

Charlotte was then thrown into the door with another bright green flash her last words were, "May the Lion show me mercy for my crimes."

"Peter, maybe we should retreat." Susan ran up to Peter who was still in a rather desperate sword fight. "We have to call it off while we can."

"It's too late, Su." Peter told her gravely, finally knocking the man down. "It's so dark now we'd never find our way back to the boat."

Just then, Mr. Bennett got a hold of his gun and shot at Peter's side. the bullet grazed him and didn't sink into his flesh but the pain was sharp enough to send him falling to the ground in pain. Worse, there was an open pocket knife that someone had left on the ground and it cut into his side.

"Peter!" Susan cried racing over to his side and placing his head in her lap.

"I love you, Su." He said smiling at her weakly. "You were the best thing that ever happened to me. Please don't forget that."

He started to close his eyes.

"No, stay awake." Susan pleaded with him. "Don't leave me, you're going to be alright."

"Su..." He muttered reaching for her hand. "I'm sorry...you must through yourself on the mercy of Aslan now. At least you believe again, and at least we had this time together."

Susan started crying now. She was losing him again.

Meanwhile Harrison Bennett might have thought twice about shooting at Peter if he'd known who was now crouching in the bushes behind him.

Edmund had managed to crawl over into the bushes closer to the battle itself to get a better look. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert weren't that far behind him now (William had managed to find them and get them back from their rest stop safely). When Edmund saw Harrison shoot his brother he jumped out of the bushes (probably tearing the clot in his leg) and tacked him from behind.

The force and surprise of the suddenly blow knocked the gun out of Harrison's hands, it rolled down the hill, landing at Zane's feet.

"Son, throw it back up here." Harrison told him.

Emma ran up the slope to try to save Edmund from being kicked down it by Mr. Bennett once he regained his tranquility.

Harrison grabbed her by both wrists. Edmund would have fought to save her and probably killed himself in the attempt if Mr. Gilbert and Julia hadn't yanked him back into the safety of the bushes.

Zane grabbed the gun but rather than throw it he held it up and pointed it at his father, climbing up the rocky hill himself now.

"Zane, what are you doing?" Harrison demanded.

"I should think it's obvious." Zane answered. "Let her go."

"You don't want to do this, I'm your father." Harrison protested.

"I always thought there was some good in you dad." Zane was bawling now, tears streaming down his face. "I always thought under every unkind thing you ever said to me or to anyone else, you were a good person, I see now that I was wrong."

"Zane..."

"No, dad!" Zane shouted. "I don't want to hear it."

"This could mean everything for us." Mr. Bennett insisted.

"You're willing to kidnap someone we've known since she was three just to make yourself wealthy, you've changed dad. And not in a good way." Zane took the safety off the gun now (It had accidentally been put back on when it fell down the hill). "Let her go or I'll shoot you."

"Don't son, please." He pleaded.

"Let her go." Zane said firmly, placing his finger on the trigger.

"Zane, don't shoot him." Rikki shot and arrow at Harrison's arm causing him to release Emma whom Edmund and the others then pulled into the bushes behind them.

"Why'd you do that?" Zane demanded rather harshly.

"So you didn't have to kill your own dad." Rikki shout-explained as someone grabbed her from behind and started pulling her into the archway.

"The flashes want you, not us, save us, take them!" Some panicked workers screamed hurling her into the green flashes as they spoke.

"Let me go." Rikki's voice echoed as she slid down into the cave, if that's what it still was.

"What are you doing?" Denman shouted at them. "I told you to throw the others in there not the mermaids, you're costing us money."

"Sorry, but the flashes..."

"To heck with the dang flashes." Denman hollered at them.

"Oh my god!" One of them screamed.

"What is it now?" Harrison shouted, pulling the arrow out of his arm while he glared at his son but dared not speak because he still held the gun in his right hand.

"There's something coming out of there." The workers pointed as another green flash exploded and a small slim figure began pulling herself out of the cave.

"Rikki?" Zane called out hoping she'd managed to grab onto something before she fell in.

But the figure was not Rikki at all. She was much smaller and her hair was long and fair. She wore a belt with a knife and a diamond bottle with some thing sparking red in it strapped around her waist.

"Lucy..." Peter's weak voice murmured from where he was laid.

"Peter!" The girl shoved her way passed Denman and the other workers with amazing speed. What was even more amazing was that she did it with one hand because she was opening her little diamond bottle with the other one as she ran.

She quickly put a drop in his mouth and his wounds healed and he began to breathe normally again.

"Come on." Lucy grabbed his hand and lifted him up.

"Lucy!" Susan shouted from her place.

"Susan!" Lucy smiled at her. "you're alright. Come on."

"Come on where?" Susan asked, trailing behind Lucy and Peter as they climbed towards the archway.

Lucy started to place her foot into the flashing arch.

"What? In there?" Susan gasped. "Why?"

"Trust me." Lucy told them.

Suddenly there was the biggest flash of all it seemed to swallow up the whole island, blinding everyone.

When Susan could see again, she found that she, Edmund, Lucy, Peter, Emma, Zane, Julia, Lewis, Cleo, Ash, Rikki, William, Louise, Max, and Charlotte were standing on the other side of the arched pillar door but now it was closed and rather than the moon pool where they should have been, they were all standing on a sort of grassy plain.

The door was both stone and wood and it had a peep hole.

"What am I wearing?" Julia asked, realizing that she was dressed in a long Narnian (Though she didn't know it was Narnian) gown.

Edmund turned to look at her (his leg was no longer hurt in the least). She was young again. Her gray hair was blond and her wrinkles had all smoothed. He walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek before putting his arms around her and pulling her towards him.

Louise and William both gazed at each other looking quite puzzled. They were both young now and felt as though they were both very different people. They felt suddenly shy. It was like they knew each other very well, and yet didn't know each other at all.

"You look..." William whispered.

"You too." Louise beamed at him. Then she put her fingers to her throat. Her voice sounded youthful again. It didn't sound raspy and old anymore. "Is that my voice?"

"It's lovely." William told her.

"Lewis, you're alright!" Cleo threw herself into his arms.

"Yes, I just found myself here when they threw me in." Lewis said. "When did you arrive?"

"Just now, I think." Cleo said feeling very unsure.

"Rikki." Zane reached out for her.

"Why are we all dressed like this?" Emma wanted to know, realizing that it wasn't only Julia who was wearing the beautiful clothing.

"I don't know, but I like it." Charlotte told her, spinning around in the lovely gown that looked like something out of a fairytale.

"You look so pretty, Charlotte." Max told her kindly. "Just like your grandmother."

Charlotte beamed at him. "Thank you." She paused for a moment. "Max?"

"Yes?"

"I know you're not my grandfather but I really wish you were." Charlotte said with a certain deep honesty in her voice that was so pure and unlike her that it surprised everyone and even Rikki had to admit she could sort of understand what potential Aslan might have seen in her.

"He doesn't look old enough to be anyone's grandfather." Lucy said in a merry voice. "You look barely any older than Peter." For Max had also been changed and become young like the rest of those who'd been old had.

"But, I don't understand." Said Cleo. "What happened to Mako?"

"I think the answer is behind that door." Rikki said, leaned forward and pressed her eye to the peep hole.

Through the door she could see the island becoming less of land and more of a dark mist. Part of the moon was showing from behind the dark circle and it was red.

Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert stood on the only rock mass calling for their daughter. But Harrison Bennett, Linda Denman, and the others were no where to be found. The land Mass started to shift and float taking Mr. And Mrs. Gilbert away from the fading remains of Mako island and back to the mainland.

Then the scene changed there was no longer any island, only the moon pool. And it was swirling downwards the way water turns when you pull a plug in a bathtub. Then the pool was dry and sank deep into the earth, then into the sea.

With tears in her eyes, Rikki finally turned to the others. "Mako is no more." She told them.


	14. The beauty of Aslan's Country

"But how can that be?" Ash asked, an almost wildly bewildered expression full of fear of the unknown in his eyes. "Mako gone?"

"I don't know." Lewis sighed. "But I don't doubt it." He glanced back at everyone decked out in their Narnian finery looking as fresh as though they'd just come from bathing and not at all like they'd nearly gotten themselves killed in a battle. "Somethings have to be taken on faith."

Suddenly Cleo let out a little sob and placed her hands over her face.

"Oh, Cleo." Peter said sympathetically. "You aren't crying are you? What with us all safe and well in spite of what's happened?"

"Don't try to stop her, Peter." Lucy said, putting her arm around Cleo's shoulders. "It's always painful when something you love comes to an end. Think of all the beautiful things that are no more, all sunken into the sea of that other world. It would be less becoming of her if she didn't weep."

"She's right." Emma said softy. "Although it does feel so strange. It's funny, I thought it would last for ever."

"This is my fault." Charlotte said, unable to tear her eyes away from the door. "Mako might still exist if not for what I did."

"Denman might have put an end to it in time." Lewis tried to comfort her. "Or Bennett, or anyone...too many people were finding out, maybe it was just time."

But Charlotte could not be consoled. "I wish that Lion had eaten me before any of this had happened. I don't belong here with all of you."

"Traitors worse than you have mended in the past, Charlotte." Edmund reminded her.

"And Aslan wouldn't eat you." Lucy assured her. "He must have known what he was doing, giving you that warning."

"Charlotte, I'm going to be blunt." Rikki told her almost sharply.

"Is she ever not?" Lewis joked as Zane elbowed him in the ribs, urging him to shut up. "Ow."

"If you hadn't been so full of yourself, maybe we might have grown to like you in time." Rikki said flatly. "It's true, I was the one most against having you in the group but still."

"Wait." Charlotte looked confused. "That was you? I thought it was Cleo."

"Cleo was very nice about having you in our group at first." Emma told her.

"I'm sorry, Cleo." Charlotte apologized feeling worse than ever about all the nasty things she had done to them.

"It's alright." Cleo forgave her.

She looked over at Susan now. She'd been dreadful to her. "Susan, I'm really sorry about getting you thrown into Dr. Denman's lab."

"I forgive you." Susan's voice was rich and queenly. It was at that moment that Rikki, Cleo, Emma, and the others who'd only heard of Narnia before could see clearly that she really had been a queen-still was one in fact.

"Where's the goat?" Charlotte said suddenly as they all realized that Tumnus was not with them.

"Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy called nervously.

"Look, over there!" Zane pointed to a goat-legged figure standing under a large fruit tree only a few feet away.

Lucy, Charlotte, and Cleo raced over to him to see if he was indeed Mr. Tumnus. For he was not Mr. Tumnus as they had last seen him-worn and drenched in sweat-But he had been changed just as they all had been changed. Being a faun, he still wore no clothes but a long royal purple scarf was draped around his neck and on his head their were little golden horn tips that were very like the ones Lucy had once given him for a gift back in the golden age of Narnia in Cair Paravel.

"Master Tumnus, are you alright?" Lucy asked, reaching for her dear friend.

"I'm fine." He assured her, gently squeezing her hand. "I've just been enjoying the nice shade of this tree here."

Cleo, overjoyed that he hadn't been lost in the battle anymore than they had, hugged him.

Charlotte smiled and said she was glad things had turned out well for him.

"Haven't we done this before?" Peter asked Edmund, looking at everyone's clothing and smelling the rich aroma of the strangely familiar fruit trees.

"Of course we have." Edmund told him, laughing a little as he spoke these words. "Don't you remember Peter? It was at these very fruit trees that King Tirian asked you where Susan was when you only had Lucy to introduce him to."

"That's right!" Lucy cut in. "Peter changed the after about five minutes of us all talking about her choice to forget Narnia. He said we should all try the fruit."

"You stopped talking about me, to talk about fruit?" Susan folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow at her husband.

Peter reached out and touched the side of her face with the palm of his hand. "It hurt too much to think of you then. And after that fight..."

Susan nodded. She understood, at least she thought she did except that if these were the same fruit trees it would mean they'd come to Aslan's country. All of them. Not even just herself and Peter. She wondered if they'd all died or if they'd simply been called here. You didn't necessarily have to die to reach this place.

"Shall we try the fruit again?" Edmund asked.

"I don't see why not." Peter shrugged his shoulders.

Zane's stomach rumbled. "I'm starving."

"I'm rather hungry myself." Rikki admitted, reaching out to pluck the lovely fruit before stopping, her hand half way there.

"Why did you stop?" Ash asked her.

"I'm not sure." Rikki told him. "I just did."

"I think it's because we aren't sure..." Emma said. "Not sure if it's allowed, I think. I mean, supposing this fruit isn't for us?"

"Oh don't worry." Lucy said cheerfully, taking one of the fruits off the tree and handing it to Zane. "This is the country were every good thing is allowed."

That was enough for Zane, who began to inhale the fruit as though he hadn't eaten in a year.

Peter took some of the fruit and handed it to Susan with a contented expression on his face as he saw the wedding ring glittering on her hand as her fingers closed around the fruit. The fruit had been wonderful before but now that she was here with him it would be even better. Now this really was the most perfect place that ever was.

After they'd all had their fill of the fruit that made everything in our world taste like medicine, they all began to wonder what they ought to do next. It wasn't as if they could just go back home. Emma and Ash had tried the door (although it must be confessed that they did this very half-heartedly because Aslan's country isn't the sort of world anyone is ever in a hurry to leave) and found they couldn't get it open at all.

It was Lucy who took the lead now. "Friends," She announced. "There is no point to staying here in this one place. We have a whole wonderful world ahead of us, further up and further in, let's go into it." And she began to run as quickly as her legs would take her. She laughed happily as she ran and her peace of mind made everyone realize at once that they could no longer feel afraid even if they wanted to.

It was Peter who took after her first, then Susan and Edmund followed him and Julia of course followed Edmund not wanting to lose sight of him after all this time. After which Emma, Cleo, and Rikki felt they ought to go along with them. Lewis, Zane, and Ash saw no reason why they shouldn't run after the girls, not if this was the world were almost everything was allowed and ran along too. Tumnus, Charlotte, Louise, and William followed them all trailing just behind.

They passed the most beautiful surroundings that ever were. Lush green hills and roaring waterfalls (the kind you could actually swim up like a pool of raining silver if you wanted to), mountains of many colors, pretty gardens and houses, some Narnian others from other places and worlds. And the best part was it all just got prettier and prettier the deeper in they ran.

"What is that?" Lewis gasped, not for breath (In that world running never made you tired in the least) but out of awe and surprise. He pointed to a large green hill garden with a golden gate all around it.

"Oh that's the main garden." Lucy told him as she ran up the hill towards it's gates.

They all rushed to the gates after her eager to see what they might find there.

What they found was beyond anything they could have imagined. Inside the garden was far larger than it was outside and could fit far more flowers, plants, trees and even living creatures than any of them except Lucy, Edmund, and Peter had expected to see.

There was King Frank and Queen Helen the first king and queen of Narnia sitting in the very middle of the garden relaxing the afternoon away. They rose when they saw High King Peter coming towards them with a fair lady on his right side.

"High King, welcome home." King Frank said by way of greeting. "And who this this lovely maiden you've brought back with you?"

"This is Queen Susan the gentle." Peter explained. "It is for the sake of my love for her that I left Aslan's Country at all. And now I've come back with no reason to leave again unless Aslan himself wills me to."

"You are welcome to us, lost queen of old Narnia, new bride of the high king himself." Queen Helen told her in a friendly tone, giving her a welcoming embrace.

After that everyone was busy introducing everyone else. There were so many who wanted to meet Queen Susan or hadn't seen her in a long time and wished to see her once again. So she and Peter were kept busy with handshakes and hugs from everyone.

"So you've come at last, cousin?" A familiar voice at Susan's left said.

"Eustace!" Susan cried happily throwing her arms around him. "So good to see you again."

"Likewise." Eustace told her. He reached behind him and pulled Jill into their circle. "You remember Jill Pole?"

"Yes of course!" Susan said, giving the family friend a hug too. She then pulled Emma and Rikki into their group and introduced them to her cousin and Jill.

Tumnus was introducing Cleo and Lewis to some other fauns who'd been in the garden playing their flutes. And He also called over the two good beavers who were dear to himself and the Pevensies and had them all shake hands and talk to one another.

Peter ran back to the entrance of the garden to bring William over to meet Eustace and some others. Louise tagged along and liked the family just as much as William did. And it is fair in turn, to say they also liked her very much as well.

Edmund had a lot of people to bring Julia to meet. They were all very fond of her and said a better bride couldn't have been found in for the just king had they searched for thousands of years. Edmund blushed and told them that Julia and himself were not married yet only to have several creatures laughingly say, "Yet! Did you hear him? He said _yet_. They're going to be wed, spread the word!"

Edmund slapped his forehead and muttered something before getting down on one knee (Or maybe one of the talking animal's pushed him down) and popping the question. Julia said yes but there was never any doubt from anyone present that she wouldn't.

Zane and Ash made friends with Aravis, Cor, and Corin. Zane and Corin nearly got into a fight which Aravis had to break up but it was mild anyway and was cut short because Corin simply had to rush over to see Susan again. After all it had been a very long time.

Max hadn't been introduced to quite as many people as the others had. He was rather standoffish and spoke only with the few people that Lewis brought with him to the corner gate where he stood watching everyone else talk and laugh happily amongst themselves.

Charlotte stood at Max's side wondering what this all meant for her. Did it mean that she was to stay in this beautiful place for ever? This place she most certainly was not worthy of staying in? Would the Lion come and banish her back to the cold barren world she now saw our world as? But before she could come up with any possible answers to the questions her mind was reeling with, she felt a warm arm slip around her shoulders and a soft kind voice speaking to her.

"Granddaughter, you've gotten so much taller and prettier than when we last saw each other." The sweet voice said.

"Grandmother!" Charlotte cried happily, realizing that the woman speaking was none other than Grandma Gracie herself.

But it wasn't the grandmother Charlotte could just vaguely remember from her toddler days. Not the gray haired woman who told wonderful stories of the sea. No, it was the young and beautiful Gracie she had seen in photographs so often. It was the Gracie from the video. The lovely Gracie who had once been a mermaid herself. The one whom Max loved so dearly.

Gracie planted a kiss on her granddaughter's forehead. "So you've come to see me at last."

"I would have come so much sooner if It was allowed." Charlotte told her, surprised that she could speak for truly she felt too happy for words.

After that, Gracie noticed Max looking at them. "Max." She let go of Charlotte and threw her arms around him. "I've missed you."

"My Gracie." Max, murmured, tears of joy filling his eyes.

"I'm sorry I pushed you away all those years ago." She told him.

"Think no more of it." Max said. "It was my fault. I didn't realize how hard it was for you."

"It wasn't your fault." Gracie insisted, tears filling up her own eyes now. "It wasn't."

And the three of them, Gracie, Max, and Charlotte, realized at once that they were a family. With that the three of them left the garden. Max and Gracie both had one arm around Charlotte and they all walked to the place where they belonged. Home. Gracie's home which was where they would all live now. For Max and Gracie would marry soon and though the looked so young they were inside old and wise enough to raise a teenager and to teach her right from wrong.

Right outside the gate, they met Aslan himself who gave Charlotte a satisfied nod and told her she had made the right choice and could now live happily forever with the very family she'd longed for all her life.

Hours later, Peter took Susan out of the garden to the home where their parents now lived.

Mrs. Pevensie was hanging clothes on the line to dry in the warm yellow sun that is even nicer and newer feeling than ours even though it's older. When she saw them coming. She dropped the basket on the ground and raced to them, calling for her husband to come out of the house at once.

Once she'd reached them, Mrs. Pevensie pulled them to her unable to remember a time when she'd last been this happy. "Oh Susan, you've returned to us at last."

Mr. Pevensie noticed the rings on their children's fingers. "She returns as a bride. Our little girl no more."

"Father." Susan sighed happily, giving him a tight hug. "I've been so old before that if I'm not young and little now, I don't know when I have been young and little."

"Mum, Dad!" Edmund came running towards their house with Julia close behind him. They were hand in hand so she shouldn't have been behind the long Narnian gown, beautiful and comfortable as it was, was quite long and made her trip a little. "Look who else has come back."

"Why it's Julia." Mr. Pevensie smiled. "It's been ages since I last thought of her. How good to see you again."

"Bless my soul, it has been a long time since we last saw her, hasn't it been?" She reached out for her future daughter-in-law.

And from the hill, the bright sunset glowing from the west behind her, racing towards her parent's house where the family had gathered came Lucy, last of all carrying an armful of purple tulips she'd picked from the garden knowing that at last the real golden age could finally begin.


	15. A truly happy end to this tail

Every day in Aslan's Country is glorious, flawless, and more wonderful than a million years in just about any other world but this day was even more special than most. For it was a wedding day. It was in fact, a double wedding. It was Edmund and Julia's wedding day as well as Gracie and Max's wedding day. It was almost a triple wedding because Peter and Susan although they were already married had decided to have a renewal of vows sort of ceremony so that the whole family could celebrate with them.

The air was full of blowing horns and cheers. Flower petals and rice sailed on the light breezes that never became too muggy nor too cool.

The ceremonies themselves were performed by Aslan who stood on a great dais in the hall of Cair Paravel. After he'd finished speaking to the brides and grooms, William stood up and took Louise's hand in his, getting down on his knees.

Louise smiled down at him as he spoke.

"Louise Chatham." He said softly but in a clear tone. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes." Louise told him. "I will."

And everyone in the room broke into an applause. Some wiped happy tears from their eyes. Some of the louder persons shouted things like, "Hurrah! Hooray! Three cheers!"

While all this was going on, the windows to the east were wide open and all could hear mermaids singing songs of joy and peace.

Afterwards, Emma, Rikki, and Cleo went out to meet them and though they found that they were a rather different kind of mermaid from themselves, these having been born mermaids and not simply turned into half fish by an enchanted moon pool, they had enough in common to become good friends with them. Many of these Mermaids already knew Susan from the golden age of Narnia when she'd ruled as their queen and were amazed to see that she now had a shimmering tail not so very different from theirs.

Sitting on the rocks watching the Susan, Rikki, Emma, and Cleo swim off into the waves sat Peter, Ash, Lewis, and Zane.

Before swimming far off, the girls waved and the boys waved and smiled back and then got into a conversation amongst themselves.

"Can't catch up with me, Cleo." Rikki laughed zooming passed her, stopping for a moment at a large rock in the middle of the sea to move her damp blond bangs out of her eyes.

"Yes, I can." Cleo laughed, finally catching up to the rock.

Susan and Emma came behind them.

"I know I could beat you Rikki." Susan laughed. "I swam right passed you _and_ Emma on the first night we met."

"But Cleo's the slow one." Rikki teased.

Cleo splashed her in the face.

"Hey." Rikki laughed trying to get the salt water out of her nose before splashing her back. "Don't do that!"

Emma pulled herself up onto the rock and looked out at the horizon. It was one of the most wonderful things about being in Aslan's country, your eyes changed and you could see anything in the distance no matter how far away it was. And what Emma saw surprised her very much.

"Rikki, Cleo, Susan!" She called down to them. "Look at that!"

And since their eyes were changed too, they could also see the strange thing that had surprised her so greatly.

"It's Mako." Cleo gasped. "Just as it was when we first saw it."

"No, it's better than that." Emma sighed. "It's much greener and deeper and I...I don't know...it's so much more..."

"Real." Cleo came up with. "It seems so much more _real_ than it was all the other times we've seen it."

"But that can't be Mako." Rikki said realistically. "Wasn't it destroyed? I saw it all go away behind that door. I thought it was gone."

It was Susan who figured it out. "We have all misunderstood what's happened."

"What do you mean?" Cleo asked.

"Mako isn't gone." Susan explained. "There is no need to mourn for it after all. It simply this, when we thought of Mako before, we thought about the Mako in our world. That Mako had a beginning old though it was and it had an end as we all saw. But this is the real Mako. Ours was only a shadow copy of this one. Just like my home now is the real Cair Paravel so like the one from Narnia but more real."

"So I guess we don't have to worry about anything ever again." Cleo realized. "Being moonstruck doesn't need to be feared here, does it?"

"I should think not." Rikki said. "This doesn't seem like the sort of place where _anything_ needs to be feared."

"We've finally come to our real home." Emma sighed happily. "The reason we loved Mako was because it sometimes made us feel a little like we feel now."

Late that night, Susan swam into the moon pool of the real Mako and looked around. The cave was darker and thicker than she remembered from the Mako she had once known but it was still warm and familiar.

"Hello." Peter said swimming up to her. He'd swam up through the underwater entrance because in Aslan's country human's can hold their breath longer than they can in our world.

"Isn't this too wonderful for words?" Susan sighed looking up at the glittering starts shining through the top of the moon pool's opening.

"It is." Peter agreed, slipping his arm around her and pulling her close to him.

Susan let out another sigh and leaned her head on his chest. "I never thought we'd end up like this."

"Neither did I." Peter whispered.

"This is the best place that ever was." Susan said softly.

"Now that you're here it is." Peter agreed, gently lifting her chin up and kissing her.

And they all lived happily ever after where they truly belonged and had belonged all their lives without knowing it until now.

-The End-


End file.
